The Forgotten Realms
by Drgonstar
Summary: Now the story has kicked off! Here is the story based my DnD campaign I'm doing! Hope you all enjoy! Comment and critiques would be welcome!
1. Chapter 1

The Forgotten Realms Book 1

It had been a week since Aldalon, a young elven sorcerer, escaped the destruction of the town of Westgate. He was now on a caravan to Neverwinter, which he'd been on for about five days. The sun had begun to set and the Halfling caravan master spoke up.

"I think it is time for us to set up camp for the night,"

The others on the caravan nodded and voiced the same opinion. So the caravan stopped and began to set up for the night. Aldalon helped make the fire and cook a decent meal, although it had a lot of be desired.

"Thank goodness you're a Sorcerer and not a cook!" A bartender from Westgate laughed.

Aldalon nodded, "You're lucky I didn't put a polymorph spell on that food,"

The bartender chuckled, "I don't think you know one anyways."

Aldalon sighed and continued to eat his food. The bushes rustled nearby.

"Hey, Firehands," The dwarven cleric, who was friends with the bartender, said, "Ye mind checkin' that bush out?"

Aldalon rolled his eyes, "Fine, fine."

The elf got up and headed toward the bushes and noticed a wolf getting ready to strike. He held out his hand and shot a magic missile at the wolf. The spell did minor damage but the wolf cowered in fear.

"I say!" A familiar voice said, the hooded druid who had helped Aldalon escape Westgate appeared, "It seems my wolf has taken a liking to you!"

"It attacked me!" Aldalon growled.

"I told it to," The druid smiled, "You look so much like an elf I once knew, I never really got his name though."

Aldalon sighed, "Just go away!"

"Oh no no no!" The druid laughed, hysterically, "I think you should try some of my roast bird!"

The druid handed him a bird, fried to a golden brown, on a stick.

"Why did you make this?" Aldalon asked him.

"Because I was hungry," The druid said.

"But druids aren't supposed to kill animals,"

"The bird just flew down to me a plopped over dead," The druid explained, "I felt sorry for the poor little guy, but you looked so delicious!"

"So how goes things with the circle?"

"They gave me a new assignment! To quote-on-quote "Get as far away from here as possible" Oh I just love doing assignments like those! I get to see the world! Although I don't know where I could go to be furthest away from the circle"

"Interesting," Aldalon said and took a bite of the bird, which was the best thing he'd ever tasted. The young elf savored the taste for sighing with content, "I must be heading back to camp now."

The druid looked into the sky, "Oh look at that! Those stars are getting married!" he said, mumbling off into the forest.

"That man never ceases to amaze me," Aldalon said and headed back to camp.

"Oye!" The dwarven cleric exclaimed, "What was in that bush?"

"Just a rabbit," Aldalon lied, "Nothing of major threat."

"Aye," The cleric said, "But that was one very talkative rabbit. Kind of reminded me of that crazy druid in the sewers."

"Yeahhe was in the shape of a rabbit," Aldalon said, "Listen, I'm going to turn in for the night alright?"

The others nodded and Aldalon went into a tent and drifted off to sleep.

Aldalon's dream was a strange one; he was in a grey place that looked dead and barren.

"I wonder where I am," Aldalon said with a little bit of worry, looking around. The sounds of tortured souls rang out from the west. Aldalon gulped and followed the sound.

After what seemed like ages but was only a mere moment in the world of dreams, he came to a giant green wall made of souls, all of them crying out in agony. The elf tried to recall what this was, but couldn't. He continued walking along the wall until he found a familiar face. It was of a half-orc bully from his childhood. The orc had mysteriously died when he turned thirty.

"Hello there, Bloodrunner," Aldalon smiled, "Fancy meeting you here."

The half-orc looked at Aldalon and growled, "I am here simply because I knew how nature worked! No gods control this world! And look at me now, what a fool I was"

Aldalon laughed at the misfortune of the bully before hands lunged out from the wall and tried to pull Aldalon in. The sorcerer woke up and almost screamed in terror. After a few short pants he put his head back down and went to sleep. Aldalon woke up the next morning and headed to the fire. He noticed a man in a black hood poking the fire.

"Excuse me," Aldalon said, "What are you doing by the fire?"

"Why hello there good sir!" The man said, turning around, "It seems like I've stumbled across your camp!"

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah," And saw the that druid was roasting a fawn, "Care to explain that?"

"It was the same as that bird, he was walked over to me a fell over dead!" The man said.

"I see," Aldalon said. The smell of cooked fawn drew the out all the other caravan members.

"Hey!" The Halfling caravan master exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just going make you some food," The druid smiled, "No harm done."

The Halfling sighed, "Very well,"

"Yeah," Aldalon sighed, "He's just nuts."

"Nuts?" The druid said, "Why yes! Those would go great with the deer!"

The druid went into the forest and came back with some nuts. The insane druid shoved the nuts down the deer's gullet and began to whistle a tune while cooking the deer.

The bartender from Westgate leaned over to Aldalon, "Is there any way we could get rid of him?"

Aldalon nodded, "Excuse me, ."

"Yes?" The hooded man asked, "Is there something you need of me?"

Aldalon took out a map and pointed to the far north, "This is the place furthest from the circle."

"Oh! I need to get there right away!" The druid exclaimed, "I will see you soon!"

The druid got up and ran down the path.

"So that's what ye were talkin' about?" The dwarven cleric laughed.

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah."

"Well after we finish eatin' it should be time to head out."

The caravan members packed up their things and headed out. When the sun was high in the sky the horses stopped, as if they sensed something.

"Well these beasts aren't going to go anytime soon," The Halfling sighed, "I guess we'll set up camp here."

The rest of the caravan nodded and set up camp. As Aldalon started the fire, he noticed a monk walking by.

"Hey there traveler!" Aldalon yelled, "Where are you headed to?"

"Neverwinter," The monk replied.

"So are we!" Aldalon exclaimed, "Why don't you join us?"

The monk nodded and came over to the camp.

"So," The Halfling caravan master said, "Why are you out of your monastery?"

"I'm going to plead to the lord of Neverwinter," The monk said, "My monastery was attacked by goblins."

"Well, Westgate was burned to the ground by goblins," Aldalon said with anger, "But we've set out for a better opportunity in Neverwinter."

The monk nodded, "I see."

Aldalon looked around the campsite and noticed another forest.

"Hey guys," Aldalon said, "I'm going to head into the forest and see if I can't find some food for us."

"I'll come with you," The monk said.

"It would be a pleasure for you to come along," Aldalon smiled, "May I have your name?"

"Vaxel Hian," The monk said.

Aldalon nodded and started toward the forest, Vaxel following right behind him. A few minutes into the forest Aldalon began to remember something.

"This must be the Mere of Dead Men," Aldalon said.

"What is that?" The monk asked.

"A swamp around West Harbor,"

"I see,"

The sound of lizard hissing came from some bushes. Aldalon and Vaxel hid and saw several Lizardmen talking in some intangible language. The lizardfolk sniffed, the air.

"Warm bloods!" A lizard folk exclaimed, "To arms!"

"Actually, we're harmless," Vaxel said, "We're just trying to explore this great swampland."

The lizardmen hissed, "Very well warm bloodssss you may passs."

The two adventurers nodded and passed the lizard men. No sooner had they done that, an arrow whizzed past their head. The monk noticed that the person who shot the arrow was behind a tree a few feet in front of them. Aldalon and Vaxel agreed that they were going to flank their opponent. The sorcerer cast mage armor on himself and ran to the left of the tree. The monk ran right. The enemy was a woman who was bald and had arrow ready to fire. She let her bow string go and the arrow nicked Aldalon on the shoulder. Aldalon used an Acid Splash spell and did minor damage to the hunter. As Vaxel got the behind the hunter, she lunged at Aldalon, striking him across the chest. Aldalon used some magic missiles on the hunter before the monk landed and punch to the hunters back. The sound of a spine crunching echoed through out the forest and a drop of blood shot from the hunter's mouth. The hunter hit the ground, muttering something before breathing her final breath.

"That was fun!" Vaxel laughed.

"No time to stop!" Aldalon said, spotting another hunter readying an arrow. The sorcerer roared in fury and ran toward the male hunter. The hunter, caught off guard, fired some arrows into the sky landing several feet behind Vaxel. Aldalon approached the hunter and used a Burning Hands spell that did a fair amount of damage to the ranger. The monk jumped onto a rock that the hunter had taken cover behind and kicked dust in the hunter's eyes. Vaxel followed with two kicks, but the kicks were blocked by the hunters bow. Aldalon fired a magic missile at the hunter and the monk took his chance. He jumped off the rock and landed a punch to the hunters face. The face caved in and the hunter hit the ground. His nose and face bleed profusely. Vaxel found a key to a small chest nearby. In the chest was a quarterstaff and some shoes. Aldalon quickly seized the quarterstaff and the monk took the shoes.

"Well this was a great adventure," Vaxel smiled.

Aldalon chuckled for the first time since Westgate's destruction, "Yeah, I look forward to adventuring with you more."

"Same," Vaxel smiled, "Friends?"

"Friends," Aldalon said with a confident smile.


	2. Chapter 2

The Forgotten Realms Book 2

It had been another week since something interesting had happened to the caravan that Aldalon was on headed for Neverwinter. After who knows how long Aldalon had been in the Mere of Dead Men, he began to get curious. He had heard so many tales about this place and the elf wanted to know if the stories were true. He turned to Vaxel, a monk Aldalon had recently befriended.

"You mind if we ditch this caravan?" Aldalon asked him, "I want to do some exploring!"

Vaxel nodded, "Seems like a nice idea."

The two hopped off the caravan and went into the Mere of Dead Men. No sooner had they done that then the sounds of a festival happening.

"Alright!" Aldalon cheered, "A town! I guess we could talk to the locals about this place."

Vaxel nodded, "Let's go."

The two followed the sounds of the festival and came to a small town, which was full of different festivities. Aldalon couldn't decide to which one to go to first. Out of the corner of his eye the elf noticed three people, two humans and one who looked like a male version of the tiefling that had helped him escape the fall of Westgate.

One of the humans was a male with light brown skin and green eyes, he had on a white wizards robe and was wielding a two-handed sword. The other human was white and had black hair and a heavy beard; he was in traditional cleric armor and was wielding nun-chucks. The tiefling had dark red skin, short black hair and a black beard similar to the clerics, he had dark red skin and was wearing some hide pants, a feathery cape, and some gloves. Accompanying the tiefling was a gigantic two-handed battle-ax.

"Hello there!" Aldalon said to the three festivalgoers.

"You're not from around here are you?" The tiefling smiled.

"Uh…well…uh," Aldalon said, hoping to avoid a confrontation like what happened at Waterdeep.

"I can smell it," The tiefling said, "Welcome to our town of West Harbor."

Aldalon bowed, "A pleasure."

"I am Andill Griffin," The tiefling said before pointed to the man in the wizard robe, "That is William Robertson, and that," The tiefling said, pointing to the cleric, "Is Vollor."

"Does he have a last name?" Vaxel asked.

"I prefer not to tell anyone," The cleric growled.

"Now, we don't we participate in some of the festivities together," Andill suggested.

"What is there?" Aldalon asked.

"There is a bare fisted fighting competition,"

"I'm there!" Vaxel exclaimed, "Where is it?"

Andil pointed to a ring enclosed by a wooden fence. Vaxel ran toward it with blinding speed. The party could barley keep up with him. When they got to the makeshift ring, a crowd had gathers and an extremely burly human male was in the center.

"Who thinks they can handle what the Stone is serving?" The burly man roared.

Vaxel expertly hopped the fence, "I can take anything you dish out!"

"So how do you win this competition?" Aldalon asked the tiefling.

"You be the first to survive ten rounds without getting knocked out." Andil said, "Stone has been the champion for who knows how long now."

"Prepare to go down frail man!" The Stone laughed and charged at Vaxel. The monk nimbly jumped over the man and landed a behind him. Vaxel followed with a punch to The Stone's back. The monk slid under his opponent and landed a blow to his chin. The Stone grumbled and swung his fist at the monk, the attack was dodged and countered.

"Frail man huh?" Vaxel laughed and followed with a punch to The Stone's jaw, the sound of a bone dislocating rang out and The Stone dropped, "That was too easy!"

The crowd was in an uproar now, several other people tried to get in a fight Vaxel.

Andill sighed, "He might be here for a while, why don't you go try the magic competition, elf."

"The name is Aldalon," The offended elf sneered and walked to the magic challenge.

"Oh!" An elderly woman said as Aldalon approached, "We have someone else who is going to help with the story!"

"What?" Aldalon asked her.

"For this magic Challenge, I will read a story, and you have to act it out using magic!" The elder said.

Aldalon smiled, "Seems easy enough."

Aldalon stood next to the elderly woman who began to read a story to some children nearby.

"And the might Wizard sent an icy ray at Mor'gog freezing the orc solid!" The elderly woman said and looked at Aldalon.

Aldalon saw a target that looked like an orc and fired a Ray of Frost at it. The attack made contact and was instantly covered in ice. The children clapped and the elderly woman kept reading.

"As the Wizard moved deeper into the cave, he came across a bugbear! "Grrr" The bugbear said, "I will destroy you!"" The woman read and looked at Aldalon.

Aldalon went up to a small target and decided to do some acting, "Really? A little guy like you?" Aldalon chuckled, "The best you could do it poke my knee caps!" Aldalon took on a sarcastic tone, "Oh help me! Help me! Some bugbear has lightly touched my kneecaps!"

The children laughed.

"Now, have an ice day!" Aldalon said and threw a ray of frost at the target, "And make sure to go green!" Aldalon added and sent blast of weak acid at the target.

The children snickered and Aldalon gave a sigh of relief, he had never been the funniest elf on the block. The woman continued reading until she got to another part.

"There was a big troll at the end of the cave that was holding the princess captive. The wizard tried to sneak up on it, but the nasty troll saw threw his plan and ran at him!" The woman said.

A man dressed as a troll came out of nowhere and ran toward Aldalon, who smirked and used a burning hands spell at the ground in front of the man.

"Oh! Hot! Hot! Hot!" The man exclaimed and ran off.

The children laughed again and roared with applause.

Thank goodness they can't comprehend good humor yet, Aldalon thought to himself.

The woman smiled, "I think the children liked it, but we'll tally up the votes for the best story teller soon."

Aldalon nodded and saw that Andill was staring at a pig.

"Excuse me?" He asked Andill, "But what are you doing?"

Andill smirked, "I'm participating in a yelling contest, I'm going to try and scare this pig before anyone else!"

A man, who Aldalon assumed was the pig's owner laughed, "I've trained him well!"

Andill looked at the pig and snarled before letting out a blood-curling roar that startled Aldalon. The pig squealed and hid behind its owner, who sighed.

"You win again Andill," The owner said and handed the tiefling a medal.

"Let's go check on your monk friend," Andill said.

"His name is Vaxel," Aldalon added.

Andill nodded, "Very well, lets go check on him."

The two went over to the ring and saw that Vaxel had about ten knocked out humans at his feet, perhaps more.

"The winner!" Someone, who was probably the mayor of the town, exclaimed and put a medal around Vaxel's neck, "And new champion!"

Vaxel held up his left hand and another man brought out a barrel of wooden weapons.

"What are they doing now?" Aldalon asked Andill.

"They're going to start the weapon brawl," The tiefling said and dropped his axe. He hopped into the ring and ran up to Vaxel. The two talked for a bit then nodded.

"I wonder how you win this one," Aldalon said.

"It is a tournament," The white wizard robed man from early said, "We might just get to see the first match shortly."

"Who are you again?" Aldalon asked the man.

"William Robertson," The man said, "You?"

"Aldalon,"

"So you're that hot shot who beat me at the magic show," The man laughed, "Good job."

"Thanks," Aldalon smiled as Vaxel broke the leg of one of the men.

"That monk is one hells of a fighter," William said.

Aldalon nodded, "That he is, it is a good thing he's one of my friends."

William laughed, "Indeed it is!"

Soon enough, the finals of the tournament had started.

Andill and Vaxel were squaring off against a male elf wielding a mace and a female halfling with a dagger. The four lunged at each other, Andill tried to hit the male elf's head, the attack was blocked and the Halfling struck Andill's stomach. Vaxel, in turn, kicked the elf in one of his special places. The elf yelped in pain and hit the ground. The Halfling jumped in the air, but Andill caught her mid-flight and slammed her into the ground and hit her back with the hilt of his axe.

"The winners!" The mayor of the town exclaimed and presented two medals to Vaxel and Andill. "You all have won this years festival!"

"Unfortunately, you all did not the magic competition, that honor goes to Aldalon!"

Aldalon shrugged, he wasn't so surprised seeing as William had told him, the elf jumped the fence and walked up to the mayor and took the medal.

"Hey!" Vaxel exclaimed, "He was part of our group!"

"He was?" The mayor asked them.

Aldalon nodded.

"Well congratulations! No team has won all four events in five years!"

The crowd cheered, and Andill looked at the others, "Why don't we go to the tavern and get a drink?"

Aldalon and the monk shook their heads, "No thanks."

"That wasn't a suggestion!" Andill growled and grabbed the two by the ears. The tiefling dragged them all the way to the tavern and set them down.

William and the cleric came up to the three.

"Congrats on finally placing in all the events Andill," William smiled.

Andill nodded, "Shall we have a drink to celebrate?"

William nodded and ordered a round for him and the Cleric.

"What do you want elf?" The bartender said, looking at Aldalon.

"Milk," Aldalon said.

The bartender roared with laughter, "You must not be from around here. I'll be a total stranger winning our competition hands down. I thought I'd never see that day!"

Aldalon shifted uncomfortably, he knew that a happy town like this would be done in soon. It happened to Westgate and Aldalon got the feeling that it was going to happen soon. He said a silent prayer to his god, and faked a smile.

Let us hope I'm not here when this town is destroyed, He thought


	3. Chapter 3

The Forgotten Realms Book 3

The tavern was buzzing with excitement, for the first time in five years a group had won all the events of their festival, and two of the winners were from outside the town. Rather than be angry at the two strangers, the town embraced them at the tavern. A traveling monk, Vaxel was talking to few others, showing them some of the techniques he used to take down a burly man that day. The tiefling, Andill, was busy arm wrestling some at the bar. A cleric, whom has been named Vollor, was mingling with a few other healers and the young wizard William was talking to a girl.

Aldalon, an elven sorcerer who had won the magic story telling event, sat in the corner, remembering the day before Westgate was destroyed. It was very much like this, everyone was happy and singing, and that little girl was with her mom. Aldalon clasped his head in fear, he remembered he'd given a gold piece to the girl earlier and how he had saved her at the Lily. He also remembered that several hours later, her corpse was in front of a burning tavern, being eaten by a goblin.

"No, please," Aldalon said to himself and said a prayer to his goddess, "Please do not let any of the children get hurt," He said, "Please" Aldalon began to sob.

"What is the matter?" A female asked when she walked up to him.

"Nothing"Aldalon growled, "Leave me alone!"

"I know something is wrong," The woman said, "Most men who come here are very sociable."

"You don't know what I've been through," Aldalon said, "Look, this happiness will not last," the sorcerer said, "If you can, hide all the children in this tavern tonight."

The woman looked at him oddly, "Okay"

Aldalon muttered and got up.

"Hey!" Another girl said, "That's the guy who won the magic competition!"

Several more of the women began to crowd around him.

"Tell us a story," One said.

"I'm afraid I don't know any," Aldalon sighed.

"Come on! You've got to know one!"

Aldalon sighed, "I might recall one, it was about a man who escaped the destruction of his village."

"Tell us!" Another girl said.

Aldalon nodded and began his tale, the women listened with intent and smiled at the happy moments and burst into tears at the sad ones. Aldalon felt some comfort in this, telling people stories had always been something the elf liked even when he was growing up. Time got away from Aldalon and he retired upstairs. He slept peacefully for the night in one of the upstairs rooms in the tavern.

The next morning, the sounds of battle woke Aldalon up.

"I knew it!" He exclaimed and hopped out of his bed, getting dressed and grabbing his crossbow. He ran outside and saw that the Cleric and William were busy fighting some small orcish creatures.

"Thank goodness you're up!" The cleric exclaimed, "Get Andill and Vaxel up will ya?"

Aldalon nodded and ran into Vaxel's room and easily woke him. The next person was Andill, upon trying to wake the tiefling up; Aldalon was punched in the jaw. The elf conjured a flash of light and Andill rolled out of bed and grabbed his axe.

The two ran downstairs to the cleric and William.

"Thank goodness you got everyone up!" The cleric exclaimed, "Come on!" The cleric said and pointed to the tavern floor, covered with the small orcs, "Let's kill them before they find the children!"

"What do you mean find the children?" Aldalon asked.

"You told the Mayor's daughter to hide the children here last night, well she did, and now they could be dead meat if we don't act fast!"

Aldalon nodded, "Then let's act!"

"Alright let's do this!" Andill yelled, "Leeroy Jenkins!"

With that the tiefling charged into the fray, he ran up to a small orc and sliced it across the chest. Aldalon followed in suit running up to two of the orcs and sending a gush of fire from his hands. The attack lit both of the things on fire and one collapsed from the heat. William jumped into the air and tried to hit the small orc with his sword. The sword hit the floorboards but the wizard was able to smack the small orc with the hilt of his sword. Vaxel jumped but hit his head on one of the rafters and hit the floor, rubbing his head. The cleric decided to flank the small orcs and ran behind William to another set of small orcs. Aldalon noticed that there was a wizard among the little beasts. It sent a gush of fire, much like Aldalon would have, at the elven sorcerer. The sorcerer grabbed the living orc that was by him and held it up as a shield. The vermin hollered in pain before his flesh melted off. Aldalon suffered minor burns too. Andil swung at his target again, this time; his attack hit the floorboards and splintered them. The splinters flew into the side of his target and it cringed. Vaxel ran over to the orcish wizard and landed two blows to its chest. The blows sent the wizard flying into a wall.

"Nice one!" Andill laughed, "You'll have to teach me that sometime!"

Aldalon fired a freezing ray at one of the monsters attacking the cleric, it hit and did minor damage. The cleric smacked another small orc with his nun-chucks. William swung his sword at his foe, but missed. The orc attacked and manage to hit William in the leg.

"Vallor!" William yelled.

The cleric nodded and healed William's wound. Vaxel jumped behind one of the small orcs attacking the cleric and gave it a hard punch to the neck. The head of the small orc reeled from the blow and flew right off. Vaxel jumped into the air and kicked the head at Andill's target, hitting it square on the head. Force from Vaxel's kick and the head, caused the little orc's skull to burst. Andill laughed and ran over to orcish wizard, instantly decapitating him.

Aldalon fired a freezing ray at William's target, finishing it off. The party then dispatched of the last little orc with ease.

"Are they gone?" A female voice asked.

"Yes," Vallor, the cleric, said.

"Thank the Gods!" The woman who Aldalon had warned last night said as she stepped out of the shadows.

"We've got to head outside and see what is going on!" William exclaimed.

"Andil and I will stay here and protect the children," Vallor said.

The group nodded and Vaxel, Aldalon, and William headed out the door. What they came across was the sight of a huge battle, the corpses of men and small orcs alike were strewn about. The three walked around the battlefield until they saw group of soldiers surrounding a lich. The lich looked around and cast a shield on him before teleporting off.

"Damn it!" One of the men said. William ran over to the spot where the lich had teleported from and inspected it, "He's gone back to Thay."

Aldalon had heard the name Thay and growled at the mention of it. Thay was an evil place where dark magic and corruption thrived.

"Are the children alright?" One of the men said.

"They are all accounted for," Vallor said, stepping into the light, "Although I suggest we send them to Neverwinter, I highly doubt that this town could survive another attack like that."

The man nodded, "Yes, that would be a fine idea," he said and looked at Aldalon, "Thank you."

Aldalon bowed, knowing his words had just saved the lives of many children.

"We must depart for Neverwinter immediately!" The man said, "Gather your things, we head out in the morning."

The group nodded and Aldalon smiled and gave thanks to his god.

The voice of a young woman entered his head, "You're welcome"


	4. Chapter 4

The Forgotten Realms Book 4

It had been a week since Aldalon had fought off an invasion at the small town of West Harbor. The villagers there had decided it was time to seek refuge and help from Lord Nasher in Neverwinter. The young elf, Aldalon, was at the front of the caravan, helping it traverse the Sword Coast. Aldalon's friend, a monk named Vaxel Hian, and a tiefling, named Andill were on the rear guard while a Cleric by the name of Vollor guarded the left side and a young Wizard, named William, guarded the right side.

"Are we there yet?" Andill yelled.

"I don't know!" Aldalon yelled back.

Andill sighed and pulled out a flask.

"What have you got in there?" The moon elf asked him.

"Some cold ale," Andill replied, "It keeps me going."

Aldalon rolled his eyes.

"Hey guys!" Vaxel yelled.

"What is it?" Aldalon exclaimed.

"I think I just saw a bird!" Vaxel said.

"That's great," Vollor sighed, "Now if only you could…"

Before Vollor could finish his sentence the bird hit the ground with a shuriken in its stomach.

"…Why did you do that?" Vollor asked the monk.

"It just didn't look right." Vaxel replied.

Andill laughed, "That reminds me of someone!"

"Oh be quiet!" Vollor replied, "I swear that the thing in the window was a swamp lizard!"

Andill smiled.

"Hey! I think I see something!" Aldalon yelled, "Its Neverwinter!"

Sure enough, the looming stone walls of Neverwinter came into sight. Outside of these walls a refugee camp had already been set up. As the caravan approached the camp, a human male and female dwarf cleric ran out of their tents.

"Firehands!" The male human, who was the bartender from Westgate, exclaimed.

"Aye! We thought we lost'cha!" The female cleric smiled, "Don'tcha ever scare us like that again!"

Aldalon laughed, "Don't worry I won't."

"So where is this caravan from?" The bartender from Westgate asked.

"West Harbor," Aldalon replied.

"I see," The bartender said while Andill walked up to the three.

"I take it you all know each other?" Andill asked them.

"Aye," The dwarf said, "That we do, Ol'Firehands here fought off an invasion of goblins that attacked our bar!"

"The man took the goblin chief's head off with one crossbow bolt!" The bartender exclaimed.

"Really now?" Andill laughed, "Firehands? I guess I could see that."

Vollor, William and Vaxel walked up to the four.

"Aldalon, Andill," William said, "The captain ordered us to speak with Lord Nasher."

Andill nodded, "Come on "Firehands"," Andill said and grabbed the elven sorcerer by the arm and dragged him into the city of Neverwinter. Aldalon remember something as they passed by a store with a sign that read "Sand's Potion Shop" he got out of the tiefling's grip and ran into the shop.

"Well if it isn't one of my kind," The voice of a lecherous elf said, "Tell me, what brings you here?"

"My master, Thaneus, told me about you," Aldalon said.

"Oh Thaneus!" The elf said walking into the sunlight, revealing his slightly tanned skin, green eyes, and brown hair, "How is the old man doing?"

"He died trying to escape Westgate."

The elf paused for a second, "The planes shall mourn his passing."

Aldalon nodded.

"Did Thaneus give you some findings?" Sand asked Aldalon.

Aldalon shook his head but took out the note again, a small sheet of paper dropped out.

"That must be them!" Sand exclaimed and picked them up, his happiness quickly turning to panic, "You must get these finds to Lord Nasher right away!"

Aldalon nodded and began to head for the door.

"There is a catch," Sand said, "Since there are increasing tensions with the Luskans, no one is allowed to see Lord Nasher unless four members of the Neverwinter Nine can vouch for them.

"Who are the Neverwinter Nine?" Aldalon asked.

"They're Nasher's elite bodyguard. I happen to know one of them frequents the tavern across the street. Goes by the name Laryoss, he's a Drow Paladin." Sand handed him a list, "These are the other members of the Neverwinter Nine and where you can find them."

Aldalon took the list and headed outside, the other four party members waiting outside the shop.

"Took you long enough," William said, "Now we need to go see Lord Nasher!"

"There is problem," Aldalon said, "We have to get the approval of four members of the Neverwinter Nine."

"Well, where can we find some of the "Neverwinter Nine"?" Vollor asked.

"There was one in the tavern nearby," Aldalon said.

"Alright! Now you guys are speaking my language!" Andill cheered and made a bee line for the tavern. The others followed into the bar and saw a group of wizards in red robes sitting at a table, talking. At the end of the bar was a man in a black hood. Thinking the man was the druid who had helped Aldalon escape Westgate, the young elf decided to talk to the man.

"Excuse me, do I know you?" Aldalon said. The man got up and backed handed Aldalon onto the ground. The man trudged past more of the bar patrons and removed his hood, revealing an elf with pitch black skin and short, white hair. The elf went up to one of the wizard and slammed his hand on the table.

"Tell me where they are right now!" The elf growled.

"I'm afraid we don't know anything," The first red wizard said. The elf picked the first wizard but the robe collar and held a sword to his neck.

"You have five seconds to tell me where you Red Wizards are hiding," The elf growled.

"I swear sir!" The first Red Wizard exclaimed in panic, "We don't know what you're talking about!"

The elf sneered and put the man down, "Very well." The elf said.

The first Red Wizard breathed a sigh of relief, just then the black elf whipped around and decapitated him. He ran over to a second Red Wizard and slammed his face into the table and drove his sword into the human's back. He went to the last one.

"We meet in some place called the Crag in the Sword Mountains!" The third Wizard panicked, "Please don't hurt me!"

A smile crept across the elf's face, "Your five seconds has long been up!" He laughed and kneed the wizard in the gut before severing his neck. The elf regained composure for a brief second and went over to Aldalon, picking him up by the shirt collar.

"What in the Nine Hells did you think you were doing?" The elf growled, "You could have blown my cover!"

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm looking for a Drow named Laroyss."

"That's me," The paladin said, "What do you want?"

"We need you're approval so that we can speak to Lord Nasher."

Laroyss burst into laughter, "You think I would endorse the idiot who almost blew my cover? No, no I would not." The paladin snarled before throwing Aldalon onto the ground, "Now get out of my sight!"

"That isn't typical Paladin behavior," Vaxel said.

"I'm a Grey Guard," Laroyss laughed, "I can do whatever I want as long as I can justify it."

With that the paladin exited the Tavern. The party ran over to Aldalon to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine," Aldalon said and got up, "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"I say we head to the Crag and bust some Red Wizard heads!" Andill said, beating his chest.

"I agree," William said, "It will prove to Laroyss that we're not some weaklings!"

"Agreed!" Andill roared, "Now let's go!"

The party ran for what seemed like forty minutes and came to a small cave in the Sword Mountains.

"I'm going in!" William roared, Andill following in suit.

"Guys!" Vollor exclaimed, "Blast it! We have to go in after them!"

Aldalon and Vaxel nodded, the three running in. When they got into the small cave, they noticed Laroyss facing three Wizards dressed in Red .

"Your time is up!" The paladin yelled.

"What does a paladin like you hope to do against the three of us?" The first Red Wizard laughed, the low growling of hyena men echo through the cave as several gnolls surrounded Laroyss. The drow rolled his eyes and decapitated two of them with a swing of his sword. Andill roared with barbaric fury and ran toward one of the gnolls, driving his axe into its arm. William jumped in after Andill and stabbed another gnoll in the leg. Aldalon shot a ray of icy energy at one Wizard and the cleric began to flank the gnolls.

"What is all this noise?" Another Red Wizard, who was probably the leader, said and walked into the light.

"The sound you will hear before you death!" The Drow paladin yelled and leaped over the other three Red Wizards, stabbing the leader in the chest and letting the blood fly onto his face. Laroyss then took this blood and smeared it all on him and roared with fury.

The three other Red Wizards turned around and began to fire spells at the Paladin, who easily shrugged them off. Andill swung at the gnoll in front of him and cleaved its face in two. William skewered his opponent. Vollor landed a nun-chuck attack to the side of the first Red Wizard's chest. Aldalon caused fire to erupt from his hands and scorched two Red Wizards. Vaxel jumped in front of the second Red Wizard and landed an uppercut to his jaw with tremendous force, sending the head clean off. Laroyss ran forward and drove his sword into the Wizards chest before Andill and William cleaved Vollor's target into thirds.

"Well I'll be damned," The Paladin laughed, "You people actually do know how to pull teeth, I guess we could talk."

"Alright," Aldalon said, "What do we need to do for you?"

The paladin smiled, "You know I'm a drow right?" Laroyss growled, "Aren't all us Drow's evil, elf?"

Aldalon sighed, "Look, first off you're a paladin, second off you didn't kill me when you have a clean shot so you have some morals to you."

Laroyss smiled, "Very well, I need help with getting rid of my past."

"Your past?" Vaxel asked.

"I come from The Underdark, basically, we men are treated like sex toys for the women and I was one to my sister."

Andill snickered.

The paladin gave him a harsh glare, "I escaped her many years ago and now, I wish to pay her back." Laroyss continued, "I need your help to go to her estate and killed our entire family," Laroyss said, "After that, we will burn that place to the ground."

Aldalon smiled, "If we do that, then you'll vouch for us when we speak to Lord Nasher."

Laroyss nodded, "Yes, I will."

"Deal," Aldalon said.

"Very well," The paladin said, "Let's get out of this wretched hive of scum and villainy."


	5. Chapter 5

The Forgotten Realms Book 5

The party looked at the cavern with the red wizards they had just slain. Laroyss, a paladin of the Neverwinter Nine whom the group had just gotten favor with, surveyed the area as well.

"Look there," Laroyss said, walking over to a dark corner; in this corner there were several cages. Laroyss went over to the cages and sliced the locks off with his greatsword. Out of the cages stepped several Neverwinter citizens. Laroyss smiled, "We need to get these commoners back to Neverwinter."

Vollor, a cleric, nodded, "Indeed, they've suffered enough at the hands of these vile men."

The group walked out of the cave and Laroyss began to chant something. Aldalon identified that Laroyss was casting a spell to summon his mount. Out of nowhere, a celestial wolf appeared and the paladin hopped on it.

"Tiefling take the left, cleric you get the right, wizard you're up from with me, and the monk and elf can take care of the back." Laroyss said, "I will take the front."

"Understood sir," The tiefling said and went to his position, the others formed up and the refugees set out.

While they were doing this, Aldalon pulled out the list containing the members of the Neverwinter Nine and their current locations. He noticed that one, named Collum, was stationed at a place called Old Owl Well. This well wasn't too far from Neverwinter and the elf decided it would be the next best place to go.

"Vaxel," Aldalon said, "What do you think of heading to Old Owl Well next?"

Vaxel nodded, "That would be a nice idea, but you would need to bring it up with the others when we're a bit safer."

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah."

Laroyss stopped the caravan.

"What is it?" William, the wizard, asked him.

"I heard something from the bushes," Laroyss said, "I think it is,"

All of a sudden, five red wizards jumped out in front of the caravan.

"Everyone front and center!" Laroyss ordered and the adventurers took the line.

Laryoss dismounted from his wolf and ran up to the fourth red wizard, he swung his sword and pulled the face off of the red wizard. Only the muscles and the eyes were showing along with the face bleeding profusely.

The tiefling ran up to the third wizard and swung at him, just barley missing the wizard. William prepared a spell before Vaxel leaped in front of the fifth wizard and landed a blow to his stomach and smacked him across the face. Aldalon ran up to the fourth and fifth wizard and sent a burst of fire from his hands, as the fire swooped of the fourth red wizard, the sound of blood boiling and screaming drove the third red wizard half insane, also the fifth and third wizard had been set on fire, the fifth's skin melting clean off.

"Nice one Firehands!" Laroyss laughed before driving his sword into the second one.

The monk jumped in front of the third one and punched its heart, the vital organ shot out of the back of the red wizard.

"Try and keep one alive!" Laroyss said, "We need to interrogate one!"

Laroyss' wolf snarled as the first red wizard began to run away. Laroyss ran over with excellent speed and tackled the red wizard. The paladin held the red wizard up and held his blade to human's throat.

"Now tell me, why are you here?" The drow growled.

"I swear I don't know anything!" The red wizard said.

"Tell me," Laryoss growled.

"All I know is that we're here because of Szass Tam,"

"If you tell me more, I promise I won't kill you."

The wizard relaxed a bit, "Well, there was some political upheaval, it's on the verge of a rebellion, I swear that is all I know!"

"Good," Laroyss said, setting him down, "You may go."

The red wizard began to run but after three steps Laroyss looked at his wolf.

"Fenris," He said, "Use Crunch!"

The wolf howled and leaped at the red wizard, knocking him to the ground and pulling the man's head off of his neck with the spine still attached. The wolf trotted back over to Laroyss and sent the head down.

"It's super effective!" Andill, the tiefling, said.

Laroyss looked at him oddly, before assuming his position at the front of the refugees. The others went back to their positions too and started back up.

A few miles down the road the group heard someone calling for help. Laroyss stopped the caravan and motioned for Aldalon to follow. The two came to what looked like a small child, but didn't really look like a human child.

"This guy is a bandit," Laroyss said, "I know it, watch."

Laroyss walked up to the "kid" and pointed his blade at the criminal's throat, "Listen Halfling I know you're just pretending to be a child, now get up and out of here before I kill you!" The Halfling stayed silent and two bandits jumped from the tree. Laroyss decapitated the two bandits with one swing of his sword and looked at the Halfling, "Should I catch you doing this again I will not hesitate to thrust this sword into your stomach," The paladin growled.

The Halfling whimpered and shot off.

"Alright elf," Laroyss said, "Let's get to Neverwinter."

The refugees didn't encounter any more problems on their trip to Neverwinter.

"Alright, you five are coming with me to vouch for the fact that I have blood all over me, come with me to Blacklake." Laroyss said.

The heroes nodded and followed Laroyss to the gates of the Blacklake district. Two guards stopped Laroyss, who sighed and pulled one of his gloves off to reveal a ring with a small eye.

"Also these five are with me," Laroyss said.

The two guards nodded and opened the gate. The Blacklake district was extremely fancy and decorative. Aldalon suspected royalty lived here.

Laroyss opened the gate to the Neverwinter Castle and walked up to a human in a blue uniform with a tabard that had that same that was on Laroyss' ring.

"Ah, Sir Neviel," Laroyss said, "The red wizards have been taken care of and the missing citizens have been found."

The man nodded and looked at Laroyss blade, "Any explanation for that?"

"The red wizards attacked me, I had to fight back," Laroyss looked back and Aldalon, "These guys can vouch for me."

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah, the red wizards attacked Laroyss first, we had no choice but to fight back."

"We?" The man said.

Laroyss nodded, "Yes, they helped me, although I didn't need it."

"Tell me," The man said, walking up to the five, "What were you doing at the cave?"

Vollor spoke up, "We were trying to secure the favor of Laroyss so that we make speak with Lord Nasher on some important business."

"I see," The man said, "But you will need four more members, and I cannot vouch for you."

Vollor nodded.

"Actually," Aldalon said, "We were going to head to Old Owl Well."

"Collum is there," The man said, "I'm sure you could secure his help," The man took out an envelope and put a small letter in it, he closed the envelope as Laroyss dipped ring in some wax. The paladin then sealed the letter with his ring, "This should help get Collum's attention."

"Thank you sir," Aldalon said with a bow.

"Before you go," Laroyss said, "Why don't you stay a night at the Moonstone Mask."

"No thank you," Aldalon said, "We must be off!"

With that the party was escorted out of the Blacklake district by Laroyss.

"Now don't cause any trouble," Laroyss smiled, "Or else I won't hesitate to ram this blade in your stomach."

"Alright," Aldalon said, "Take care."

Laroyss laughed, "No need to say that."

With that, the party headed out for Old Owl Well. Not knowing what kind of adventures awaited them.


	6. Chapter 6

The Forgotten Realms Book 6

It had been at least two hours since the group set out for Old Owl Well and they had decided to take a quick break.

"Why are we heading to Old Owl Well again?" Andill, the tiefling barbarian, asked.

"We need to secure the help of Callumn, one of the Neverwinter nine," Aldalon explained, "We need four of Neverwinter Nine members to vouch for us to gain an audience with Lord Nasher."

"Alright, and this Old Owl Well shouldn't be too far from here, right?"

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah, I don't think it should be too far away."

"Good, because my axe has be aching for some action!"

Aldalon sighed, "Just try not to kill anyone at Old Owl Well."

"I can't make any promises," Andill grinned.

Nothing of importance happened for another few hours until they got to a small encampment of Neverwinter's soldiers. The five party members looked around and noticed a dwarf that barely topped five feet tall, but had the muscle mass of two grown adults talking to one of the soldiers.

"Aye! What do ya mean ya can't find any stones! We're en the middle of the mountains! How am I supposed to tell Nasher that we couldn't fight of the orcs because me soldiers couldn't find any stones?" The dwarf growled, "Now get back to work!"

"Yes sir!" The soldier said, probably scared stiff of the man.

The dwarf nodded and looked at the party, "Oye! What ye be doin' here?"

Aldalon took out the letter he had received from one of the Neverwinter Nine and gave it to the dwarf, who drew a knife and opened the letter.

As he read the letter he smiled, "Ah, good ta see Laroyss is doin' fine," The dwarf paused for a second before saying, "And ye managed ta earn his trust, that is a daunting task in and of itself."

Aldalon nodded, "I suppose you're Callumn?"

"The one and only laddie!" The dwarf smiled, "And I suppose you all are here to gain my favor? Well I won't be able to come to Neverwinter and vouch for you if these orcs aren't taken care of."

"We need stones, right?" Vollor, the cleric in the ground, said.

"What? No! That stone gathering stuff is just a character building exercise I send me soldiers on!"

"Oh…" Vollor said, Andill laughing.

"So where do we go and what do we kill?" Andill asked Callumn.

"I need you to kill the three orc leaders in the cave about an hour north. Their names are Ragor Gorfiend, Tomar Eyespite, and the orc chieftain Smmuro Bloodgut," The dwarf said, "And you need to bring me all of their heads!"

"Can do," William, the wizard of the group said and began to head to the north. The group walked with the wizard and came upon a waterfall that was hiding a cave. The group stepped in and heard some orcs murmuring to each other.

Vaxel put his ears to the wall, "Well, they're not saying anything of much importance."

"You can understand them?" Aldalon asked the monk.

Vaxel nodded, "If we move quickly we should be able to catch them off guard."

As soon as Vaxel finished the sentence, Andill ran past everyone and around the corner, five seconds later, a orcish head hit the side of the cave.

"Come on everyone!" Aldalon said and ran around the corner.

"I got this!" Andill laughed, "No need to worry."

"I don't care if you have got this under control!" Vaxel exclaimed, "I want to spill some blood too!" Vaxel expertly flipped over Andill and uppercutted an orc in the jaw, sending its head into the ceiling. Aldalon decided to head in next and incinerated the two remaining orcs.

"Alright guys, can we get on with the rest of the quest?" Vollor asked the three fighters. Aldalon noticed a stick out of the corner of his eye. He went over to it and pulled it out of the ground; he decided to check it for any magical enchantments later before putting it in his bag. The five grouped up and continued spelunking. A battle cry sounded from the end of a long, dark hallway before three orcs ran at the heroes. William, who had taken the front, made his blade glow with white light, while Vollor drew a bastard sword and charged at the first orc and drove the sword through his chest. Vaxel met the third orc and got punched in the stomach before landing a left hook that slammed the orc's face against the wall. The second orc ran at William, who stood there. The orc began to laugh manically as he neared his victim.

"William!" Aldalon exclaimed, "Move!"

William shook his head and the second the orc got close, the wizard drove his scythe into the orcs chest. William then took out the scythe and sliced the monster's face in half. William chuckled, "Let's go."

Not even two seconds later, the party came to a room with an orc who had his face covered in strange markings and a giant battle axe.

"You must be the ones killing my kin!" The orc roared, "Me smash you!"

Several other orcs emerged from the shadows. Andill rolled his eyes and charged forward, and with a mighty swing chopped one in half, but missed the bigger orc.

William ran in next and swung his scythe at the orc, who parried and tried to separate William's torso from his legs. The wizard nimbly ducked under the attack and rammed the end of his scythe into the orc's chest. It groaned, but managed to inflict a minor wound on William. The young wizard blocked another attack before seeing an opening; he rolled under the orc and kicked his foes onto his scythe. He put his foot on the orc's back and pulled up on the scythe, cutting right through the orc, killing him instantly. The wizard twirled his scythe and planted it next to the orc, as if to show his authority.

The other orcs began to grow fearful and ran. Vollor managed to stab one in the back as the others ran up to a wall.

"I will do the honors guys," Aldalon smirked and stepped forward. A second later, he released a wave of flame from his hands, lighting the orcs on fire. The cowards screamed as their body was turned into ashes.

"That was cruel!" Vollor exclaimed.

"But it was also awesome!" Andill smiled.

Another roar came from deeper in the cave.

"Well, you guys know what we need to do," William said as he decapitated the orc he had single handedly killed.

Aldalon nodded, and looked back at the charred skeletons, it reminded him of the Lily, and of the little girl who had died. A small spark of vengeance started to glow in his heart. While these might not have been the monsters that attack Westgate, it was going to be fun burning these things to the ground. Every single one of them.


	7. Chapter 7

The Forgotten Realms Book 7

"Come on Aldalon!" William exclaimed, snapping Aldalon back to reality, "We need your help to kill anymore orcs that come across us!"

"Right," Aldalon said as the group began to walk down the hall.

"This is so exhilarating!" Andill laughed, putting blood on his face, "I can't wait for more!"

Vollor rolled his eyes, "Andill, you've got to calm down."

Andill cackled, "Do not tell a barbarian to calm down when there is blood to spill!"

Vollor sighed and muttered something under his breath.

"So," Vaxel said, trying to strike a conversation, "Which Neverwinter Nine member do you think we should go for next."

"It doesn't matter," Andill said, "Besides we'll have for out of the five on our side!"

Aldalon put the palm of his hand on his face, "Dude, the writer made that mistake in the last bookdon't you go trying to turn it into some kind of joke."

"What book?"

"The one he's being shoe horned into writing by the dungeonyou know what, never mind."

Andill shrugged and head down the cave hallway, cackling to himself.

"That has got to be one of the most evil Barbarians I've ever seen," Vaxel said.

"And ironically, he's not chaotic evil," Vollor replied.

"Interesting," Vaxel said.

The group of five came to a room with what seemed like thousands of orcs who were asleep.

"Alright, What are our chances of successfully sneaking past them?" Aldalon asked.

"If we crunch the numbers it should be point three three repeating," William said.

"Alright every remain calm and" Aldalon was interrupted by Andill shouting, "Alright times up! Let's do this! LEEROY JENKINS!"

The teifling barbarian ran in and decapitated several orcs before the rest woke up.

William ran in after Andill, his scythe glowing white. Vollor was next, casting a spell intent on harming one of the orcs. It did so and the orc fell over dead. The monk jumped in next, grabbing an orc with his thighs and cracking its neck, he followed by shattering another's ribs and making sure another one couldn't have kids. Aldalon jumped in next, firing a ray of fiery energy at an armored orc. The attack hit and the orc cried out in pain as his armor fused to his skin. After the shouts of torment ceased, the orc collapsed on the ground.

"I see you're really enjoying this!" Andill laughed, "You wouldn't mind frying a few guys over here, would you?"

Aldalon turned around and sent a purple missile at one, knocking it out.

"I said fry them, not hit them with purple sparkles!" Andill shouted, "You're lucky these guys aren't vampires!"

Aldalon rolled his eyes and saw William hook an orc in the side and pull out its left lung. The wizard turned around and decapitated an orc behind him. Vaxel saw another orc sneaking up on William and landed a blow to the orc's back. While it was on the ground, Vaxel hopped on the orc and stomped his head into the floor of the cave. Two orcs charge from both sides of Vaxel, who nimbly jumped out of the way. The orcs, however, kept going and skewered each other in the eye with their polearms.

"Stupid orcs!" Vaxel laughed and finished the two off.

Vollor had drawn his bastard sword and managed to drive it through the chest of one of the orcs before pulling it out and decapitating another. A muscular orc ran up to Andill, who blocked the orc's initial attack and cut its left arm off. The barbarian hit the orc across the face and cleaved him in half.

"Come on you orcs! I know you all can fight better than this trash!" Andill roared, hoping the entire cave would hear it.

"Andill!" Vollor exclaimed, "You're going to get us all killed!"

"But we're going to go down in a blaze of glory!" Andill laughed.

"No, West Harbor is probably going to be overrun by that lich and the rest of our missions will go unfulfilled!" Aldalon exclaimed, slapping Andill on the back of the head.

Something emerged from the hallway; it looked like a female orc with leather armor and a gigantic axe who was accompanied by five bodyguards.

"So these be da guys who are messing with me kin!" The girl roared in a deep voice.

"Wow," Andill whispered to Aldalon, "I thought female orcs were a myth."

"Me no like it dat you guys kill friends!" The female orc roared, "Now feel da wrath of Eyespite!"

"There is someone we need," William said. The five bodyguards ran at the heroes. Vollor jumped into the air and split ones head in half just a second before ducking down and barley missing the scorching ray Aldalon had sent at another orc.

"Watch where you're aiming!" Vollor exclaimed.

"I was," Aldalon smiled as the orc fell to the ground. Vaxel punched an orc in the stomach and followed with a punch to the jaw, the force caused the orc's jawbone to shatter and sent him flying into the cave wall. William ran toward his target and slid under him before turning around and digging his scythe into the orc's back before ripping out its spinal cord. Andill laughed as his target ran toward him, the tiefling lunged at the orc and bit him on the neck. The orc growled in pain and that was just enough time for Andill to slice the orc in half diagonally. The female orc screamed something unintelligible and ran at the group. Andill laughed and swung his great axe at the female, who dodged it and punched him in the stomach. Vollor ran in after Andill but was promptly smacked aside. William and Vaxel were also tossed like child's toys.

The female orc laughed and looked at Aldalon, "Elfwe no like elves around here! Me gonna carve you into pieces!"

Aldalon gulped and began to focus his energy as the female orc ran toward him. He fired another ray of fire but it missed the orc entirely.

"Time to die little elf!" The female orc laughed, Aldalon closed his eyes not wanted to see the end, when all of a sudden, heard the sound of a sword piercing the skin of someone. He opened his eyes and saw a sword sticking of the orcish female's chest. The corpse hit the floor a shape that looked like a paladin with a hood on stood in front of Aldalon.

"Laroyss?" Aldalon asked his savior.

The paladin said nothing and started for the end of the cave.

"Wait! Stop!" Aldalon yelled, wanting to thank him.

"There is no need," The paladin said, "I felt like doing a favor for a friend."

"What do you mean?" Aldalon asked the paladin.

"You'll see," The paladin said, with that the man went off into the cave.

"Well, that was awkward," Aldalon said as his friends gathered around him.

"You okay?" Vaxel asked him.

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah, I am, now let's go finish off that last orc chieftain."


	8. Chapter 8

The Forgotten Realms Book 8

"Good idea Aldalon," Andill nodded, "I can't wait to put more gore on this axe!"

Vaxel rolled his eyes, "Andill, you're getting annoying!"

"Not my fault, it is bad writing on the author's part!"

"I highly doubt that,"

"I think we need to worry about that paladin," Vollor said, "I mean he's in this cave with no one to protect him."

"He's fine," William said, starting to head down a path deeper into the cave. The group followed William to a fork, the left was lined with cells and the other looked like it led deeper into the cave.

"Which way should we go?" Vaxel asked the group.

"The right! It will get us deeper into the cave!" Andill stated.

"There could be people suffering in those prisons!" Vollor exclaimed, "Illmater will not be pleased if we let them rot!"

"Oh, you need to be quiet!" Andill huffed.

"I'm siding with Vollor on this one," William said, followed by Aldalon and Vaxel.

"Fine," Andill said and walked with them down the line of cells. Most of them were filled with dead bodies or were empty, "See! It was a waste of time!"

Vaxel seemed startled by a noise at first but leaned his head against a door, "I heard something…it sounds like something clanking on a cell door!" without hesitation, the monk opened the door. Inside was a man about twenty seven with white skin and brown hair.

"Oh! Its aboot time someone arrived!" The man smiled, with an accent that could only be found in Icewind Dale.

"Who are you?" Aldalon asked the man.

"I'm the emissary from Icewind Dale," The man said, "You've come to rescue me eh?"

"No,"

"I suppose Lord Callumn forgot aboot me eh?"

"No!" Andill snapped, "The writer totally forgot to write this plot in!"

"Eh? What writer?" The man said, "Can you get my spellbook from that book case over there?"

Vaxel went over to the bookcase, opened it, took out the book, and gave the book back to the emissary.

"What is your name?" Vollor asked the man.

"JJ Mc'Cullough," The man said, "And you'll always be welcome in Icewind Dale."

"Alright see, Emissary Mc…Mc…Mc…JJ," William said.

"Don't you need an escort?" Vollor inquired.

After the Emissary magically opened his door he shook his head, "I am a powerful Wizard, I suggest you don't worry aboot me and go focus on Smmuro, eh" the Emissary said and ran off.

The group headed back to the fork in the cave and headed right.

"See Andill," Vollor said, "Now we will be welcomed in Icewind Dale!"

Andill pouted, "You're still no fun."

The group came to a gigantic room with several powerful orcs surrounding it, grouped with several weaker orcs.

"Alright!" Andill laughed, "Now let's split some skulls!"

The other orcs heard this and charged at him. Andill ran forward and killed two of the weaker orcs with one blow. Vaxel jumped in next, landing a punch to a weak orc's face and followed by landing a decapitating kick. Aldalon sent a scorching ray at one of the more powerful ones, who gritted its teeth as some of his skin melted, but it didn't seem to faze him at all. Vollor jumped in, landing a blow to one of the weaker orcs, not killing it, but doing some damage. William was the last one in, he slid under one of the stronger orcs and tried to dig his scythe into its side, but the attack missed entirely. The orc William tried to attack swung at him. The orc's weapon caused a medium sized cut on the William's chest. Vaxel took advantage of the opportunity and ran behind the orc and snapping his neck.

"Thanks," William smiled before striking another weak orc down.

"No problem," Vaxel smiled.

Andill had managed to plunge his axe into the chest of one of the bigger orcs and head butted him. While the orc was on the ground Andill stomped his face clean off before taking his axe out of the orc and slicing the leg off of another weakling. Vollor drew his nun-chucks and managed to break the rib cage of one of the stronger orcs, before Aldalon finished it off by sending a purple, magical missile at it. One of the bigger orcs tried to bulrush Aldalon, but William intercepted, decapitating the orc with his scythe. The final orc stood in the center of the room and roared in a fury of bloodlust, from the back, ten more orcs came followed by an orc with a flag on his back, a samurai sword, and light armor.

"So, you da ones who are killing our kin!" Orc with a flag said, "Me Smmuro, Chief of dis clan! It be my duty to execute you for all dat you've done!"

The orcs began to close in on the group when Aldalon stepped forward.

"We are only doing what we were told to do!" He exclaimed.

The orcs stopped.

"You see, Gromash came to William in a dream and ordered us to kill you for the crimes you have committed."

"Oh yeah?" The orc chieftain said, "Maybe I could redeem myself by killing you!"

Aldalon smiled, "If you killed us you would all be killing avatars of Gromash."

The orc chieftain looked at Aldalon and began to cry, "Me so sorry Gromash!" with that he and the other orcs stabbed themselves in the chest, falling over onto their swords.

"Stupid orcs!" Aldalon laughed, "No wonder Corellon defeated your god!"

Andill looked at the room the chieftain had come from and notice something, "Treasure!" He cheered and ran over to the room. The others followed and picked up some very useful items.

"Who says killing doesn't have its rewards!" Andill laughed, "Not me, no sir."

Aldalon smiled, it had felt good to get some of his feelings out, and better yet, he got treasure in the process.


	9. Chapter 9

The Forgotten Realms Book 9

"Treasure!" Andill laughed as he rummaged through what was left of the orc chieftain Smmuro's belongings. The rest of the group had already picked out what they wanted and were about to head out of the cave, "Hey wait for me!"

As the party began to exit the cave Aldalon heard more footsteps and began to ready a spell. Fortunately, nothing confronted the group in the cave and they exited it with no trouble what so ever. The five made it back to the camp and showed the orc leaders heads to Callumn.

"I can't believe it! Ye actually managed to kill all o'them things!" The dwarf exclaimed.

"That we did," Vollor said a second before Andill spoke up, "And Aldalon managed to convince Smmuro to commit suicide!"

Callumn looked at the blue haired elf, "That must of taken quiet the speech skills and deception, you'd make a good politician."

Aldalon grumbled, that was the last thing he wanted to be. Callumn scribbled a letter on a piece of paper and sealed it with the Neverwinter Nine ring similar to the one Laroyss had, "Ye best be gettin' this to Laroyss as soon as possible, I bet he'd be interested to hear about what went on here!"

"Can do Callumn," William said, "Now we must be off."

Aldalon was the first one to start walking and the others soon found themselves in Neverwinter.

"I'll admit," Andill cackled, "That was one of the best bloodsheds I've ever had!"

Vollor sighed, "Don't get too wrapped up in it."

Andill chuckled, "Oh I will."

"So where was Laroyss supposed to be anyways?" William asked the group.

"Last I remember, he mentioned something about the Moonstone Mask," Vaxel recalled, "That should be in the Market District."

"Its settled then!" Aldalon exclaimed, "To the Market District!"

The group gave a confirming nod and headed into the Market district until the came upon the sign for what looked like a tavern. When Andill opened the door, a man was thrown out onto the curve before Laroyss voice boomed, "Come back when you can actually pay off your debt!"

As the drunk man stumbled away, the party gulped and walked it. The room they had walked into looked like a traditional tavern, with a bar in the corner that probably served beer, several tables near it, and various patrons around filled the bar with their voices. There were some women with questionable morals hanging around the place, but Aldalon figured it would not be a good idea to indulge in their services. Laroyss has taken a seat in a dark corner and noticed the group.

"You made it back from Old Owl Well in one piece eh?" Laroyss smiled, "It seems I under estimated you five."

Aldalon went to Laroyss and handed him the letter Callumn had given him. Laroyss took out a small knife and cut open the letter before reading it. The next second he began to laugh manically, "You actually got the orc chieftain to kill himself? That is hilarious! I knew orcs were stupid but not THAT stupid!"

Aldalon waited for Laroyss to finish laughing, "Do you know where any more of the Neverwinter Nine are?"

Laroyss nodded, "Yes, and seeing as you have made me laugh at something other than gutting an enemy, I suppose I could tell you were one of them is."

"Shoot,"

"Her name is Ta'nara, she just told me she was heading to the tomb of the Betrayer to do some "scouting". It's in the Black Lake District, just show the guards the letter and say its official business."

"Alright, is there anything we need to know?"

"Nope, nothing at all."

Laroyss nodded and saw the drunk man from earlier wander into the bar, "If you excuse me, I've got to go do my job!"

The five made their way out of the bar before the poor man was pummeled within an inch of his life and made it into the Black Lake District. They came upon an ornate Moslem surrounded by a gate. By that gate was a elvish female with light brown skin, brown hair, green eyes, and typical rogue attire who had two daggers at her side.

"Excuse me ma'am," Aldalon said, "Do you happen to be part of the Neverwinter Nine?"

"Why do you want to know?" The girl asked him, "Are so some Luskan meanie?"

Aldalon blinked, "No ma'am, Laroyss sent me," The elf girl perked up at the mention of Laroyss and jumped for joy, "My husband sent you! That means you must be good people!"

"Your husband?" Aldalon asked the girl.

"The name is Ta'nara! Pleased to meetcha! What do you need?"

"Well…we need someone to vouch for us so that we may speak to Lord Nasher,"

"If you want me to do that you're going to have to do something for me!"

"What will it be?"

"I don't know…but it'll be fun!"

"Okay," Aldalon said with caution, "I'll do it."

"Oh! I just remembered what I was going to do!" Ta'nara laughed with happiness, "You see Port Llast has been taken over by those mean Luskans and I need you guys to help blow it…no wait…Liberate it!"

"You want us to blow up a town?" Aldalon sighed.

"No that was what I was thinking before but now I want to liberate it!"

"Okay…well when do we head out?"

"Right now!" Ta'nara screamed with glee.

About a day later the group arrived at the Port.

"Now lets get to it shall we!" Ta'nara smiled. She walked up to what looked like a building and went up to a man of high authority, "Excuse me Mr, are you the guy in charge of all this?" the man nodded and promptly had his throat ripped out from his neck with two dagger, "Oops I think I tripped," Ta'nara giggled playfully, perhaps oblivious to the fact that she just ripped the throat out of a man.

"Die!" One of the man's guards said and ran up to Ta'nara, who kneed him in the crotch before putting a blade through his head.

"Silly Luskan, I'm the one who will do the killing around here!" Ta'nara giggled.

Several more guards ran at Ta'nara and Andill was quick to respond. He ran up a guard on the right and sliced him in half vertically. Vaxel jumped off some of the chairs in the mayor's office and landed a kick to the head of another guard. The kick sent the guard flying into a keg. William ran up to the guard and dug his scythe into the chest of the man and pulled out his rib cage. The third guard lunged at Vollor, who ducked under him and drove a bastard sword through the guard's chest.

"Wow!" Ta'nara giggled, "You guys know how to kill!"

"Now let's get out of here!" Aldalon exclaimed.

"Not until every Luskan is dead!"

Aldalon sighed and went out the door, greeting him was an group of four soldiers and a commander.

"Yay!" Ta'nara said gaily, "Let's spill some more blood!"

The Neverwinter Nine member ran up to the two guards in the front and stabbed both of them in the throats Andill ran in next followed by Aldalon, Vollor, Vaxel, then William. The commander, tried to take a swing at Ta'nara but she easily dodged and leg Andill chop the arm off the commander. Aldalon fired a red, hot ray at one of the guards and melted some of his armor and skin off. The soldier groaned in pain before getting finished off by Vaxel. Vollor and William tried to swing at the commander, but missed. The shouts of several Luskan guards came from behind the group and Va'nara took a liking to them.

"Oh boy! More playmates!" Ta'nara giggled and ran over to the guards.

Aldalon sent another scorching ray at the commander, who fully resisted it. Four more guards burst out of the barracks. Vaxel and Vollor took the front lines as William and Andill took another swing at the commander, who surprisingly dodged it.

"This lady just won't die!" Andill exclaimed.

Aldalon turned around and saw that Ta'nara had drove two daggers through the chest of the guards and jumped onto a roof. The four guards met Vaxel and Vollor head on, Vollor pulled out his nun-chucks and broke the neck of one of the guards while Vaxel kicked on onto the ground and stomped the guard's head into the pavement. The two guards closed in on the monk and cleric so Aldalon sprang into action. Running in front of his two friends and bathing the enemies in flame.

Ta'nara sighed; "You had to go and ruin all the fun!" she looked up and noticed two other guards who had come, "I'll go finish them off!"

Aldalon turned around and fired a red-hot ray at the commander, who cringed in pain before William decapitated her. Ta'nara finished off the last two guards and cheered.

"We did it! We liberated Port Llast from those mean ol'Luskans!"

Aldalon nodded, "Yeah."

"You all are great at killing!" Ta'nara giggled.


	10. Chapter 10

The Forgotten Realms Book 10

Aldalon grumbled when Andill mentioned the group being the Fantastic Five, "That is the worst title ever do NOT ever call our group that name again! You understand?"

Andill rolled his eyes, "What? You can't have a little fun?"

"I'd like to have fun without people thinking that we have an intellect lower than that of an orc," Aldalon snapped.

"Fine, fine," Andill grumbled, "Go ahead and ruin all the fun!"

Aldalon began to conjure a small bolt of acid shaped like an arrow in his hand but stopped.

"So guys," Ta'nara smiled, "Ya want to head back to Neverwinter and tell everyone the good news?"

Vollor and William nodded.

"Will it get the tiefling and the elf to shut up?" Vaxel said and rolled his eyes.

"You know what!" Andill roared and picked Vaxel up by the shirt collar, "I should split you in half for that!"

"Andill," Aldalon said, "Calm down, we're going to need both of you alive so that we can effectively kill people."

Andill growled, "Let's do it as soon as possible, or else I might have to split your skull."

Ta'nara patted him on the back, "And if ya do, I'll stab you right in the neck! That'll be so much fun!" And without another word, the rogue bounded into the forest.

"Come on guys," Vollor said, "Let's head back to Neverwinter."

The four others nodded in agreement and walked with the cleric. It took about three days but they reached Neverwinter and went to the Moonstone mask, a place their informant on the Neverwinter Nine named Laroyss worked, and saw a drow paladin in the corner eyeing all the patrons.

"Excuse me Laroyss," Aldalon said, "We've got the favor of Ta'nara. I didn't know you were married."

Laroyss looked at the elven sorcerer for a second before letting out a boisterous laugh that shook the establishment's walls, "You mean you actually believed her? That's golden material right there! You people always find some way to amuse me!"

Aldalon scowled at Laroyss who kept laughing as he pleased, when he tried to talk, he was crying tears of laughter, "I'm sorry, Ta'nara has the delusion that I am her husband. I have no idea why she thinks that but whatever," Laroyss cleared his throat, "I know of a ranger who is out in the Neverwinter woods named Krisov. Perhaps you could help him out?"

Aldalon nodded, "Will do Laroyss."

Laroyss smiled, "If you find anything of note feel free to show me."

Aldalon nodded and looked at his party mates, "Let's go!"

The four nodded and headed out, left the city, and after a few paces set foot in the Neverwinter woods. As the party began to traverse the woods, Aldalon saw something out of the corner of his eye. He saw the paladin who had saved him at Old Owl Well, this time; he was wearing green armor with a red trim and wielding a Katana. He was crouching in the bushes looking at something.

"Excuse me," Aldalon whispered to the man, "Thank you for saving…"

The man put the flat edge of his katana blade to Aldalon's mouth, "Quiet, elf."

The other group members came over and ducked behind the bushes.

"Great," The paladin sighed, "You brought friends."

The party looked past the bush and saw two red robed wizards with tattoos on their faces talking to one another.

"Szass Tam is out of his mind! There is no way we'd find "it" here!" The first red robed wizard said, "I say we head to Luskan and settle down for a bit."

"You idiot!" The second red robed wizard exclaimed, "You remember the last man who did that? Szass Tam killed him and raised him as a ghoul to serve as an example to all those who do!"

"Who says we'll come back to Thay?" The first red robed wizard said.

"What if Laroyss finds us?" The second red robed wizard said, "You know what he does to people right?"

"He's not going to find us."

"What about his friend Kelvis?"

"I doubt that he…"

With that the paladin jumped out of the bushes and ran at the second wizard. The others ran out after the paladin and ganged up on the wizards. Vaxel was the first there, landing one punch to both of the red robed wizards. William ran in next and managed to cut the first man across the chest with his scythe. Aldalon fired a bolt of acid shaped like an arrow at the second Wizard, which his him in the chest, but did minor damage. Vollor charged is and back handed the first wizard with his shield before stabbing him in the arm. Andill tried to cleave the head off the second wizard but missed entirely. The two wizards both let a burst of fire from the ground below them; the burst scarred the all of the fighters around them, including their companion. Aldalon sent a purple missile at the first Wizard before Vaxel punched both of them. This time, the second Wizard managed to dodge the attack. Andill swung his axe again, but missed entirely. Vollor quickly mended the wounds of William, who looked like his was getting weak. The paladin's blade began to glow blue before he swung at the wizard.

"Smite Evil!" He roared and cut the second wizard diagonally, killing the wizard.

The first one looked at the paladin and fired a lightning bolt at him. The paladin shrugged off the spell but was none the less hurt. Andill roared with barbaric fury and sliced the first wizard down the center, the blood flying onto the barbarian's face.

Andill looked at the corpses and smiled, "My hunger is stated."

The paladin looked at the group members, "Thank you for your help."

Aldalon bowed, "We could use a paladin such as you on our journeys. Do you wish to come along?"

The paladin sighed, "I'm a red wizard hunter, but seeing as the action around Neverwinter is dying down. I suppose I can join you."

Aldalon smiled, "Welcome aboard, friend."

The paladin smiled, "Pleasure to be here."


	11. Chapter 11

The Forgotten Realms Book 11

The paladin shook hands with Aldalon, "As you probably heard the name is Ke'vn."

"Pleasure to meet you," William and Vollor said. Vaxel nodded softly while Andill just groaned.

"Something wrong?" Ke'vn asked Andill.

"Nothing," Andill huffed.

"It's probably that you're going to be taking more of his kills," Aldalon said.

"Ah," The paladin replied, "So where are you off to?"

"We were heading to a crypt just north of here," Vaxel said, "And we should head there now!"

"Right you are," Vollor said, "Move out!"

The six walked a few hours more into the woods and came across a large mausoleum. Vaxel put his hand to the door.

"Yep, this is the crypt entrance," He said and opened the door, "Come on folks."

The door creak eerily as the party entered the crypt. The six where now underground in an area only lit by torches, thousands of dead bodies lined the wall as the stench of death permeated the air.

"Help," A small gasp of air cried, Aldalon whipped around and saw a person on the floor. The person looked like a male half elf with white skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. The elf was wearing red plate armor with no helmet. He was wielding a big rectangular shield and a bastard sword. There was a scratch on his face that looked like it was infected and was beginning to destroy his body. Aldalon ran over to him with Vollor and Ke'vn in tow.

"There isn't much time," The half elf said, "I am Daeson, Colonel of the fifth squad of the Neverwinter Militia. My group and I were sent here to deal with some cultists that had made their home here. My group was slaughter and a zombie struck me while I was fleeing. Avenge me!"

"You're not going away just yet!" Vollor exclaimed, "Paladin, get this disease removed right away. I'll take care of the rest!"

Ke'vn nodded and put his hand on the diseased area, the infection stopped right then and there and Vollor place his hands on the wound. As light poured from his hands, the wound sealed up. The half-elf smiled and stood up, grabbing both his shield and his bastard sword.

"Thank you kind souls, now I shall return the favor by helping you rid this tomb of the rot that infests it!" Daeson, the half-elf, exclaimed.

The group nodded with Andill huffing again.

"I know where the cultists are hiding, let me lead," Daeson said.

"Very well," Andill sighed, "Lead the way."

The half-elf either didn't care or didn't notice the sarcasm in Andill's voice as he walked ahead of the group and down a narrow, barley lit hallway. The others followed with Vaxel walking next to the half-elf. As the group kept walking, Andill kicked a rock. The murmuring of the dead echoed down the hallway.

"Nice going," William sighed, "Now look what you've done."

Five zombies lumbered down the hallway toward the adventurers. Daeson and Vaxel got into a fighting stance before the zombies got close. Daeson swung his sword at one, managing to hit it on the arm while Vaxel punched the one Daeson attacked twice. The two zombies at the front lunged at their attackers and tried to grapple them. Vaxel and Daeson where prepare though and easily knocked them back. Aldalon fired a ray of fiery magic at a zombie in the back row, lighting it on fire. Daeson and Vaxel both attacked the same zombie again, this time, the attacks barley made contact. As the first zombie tried to attack Daeson, the half-elf rammed his shield into the monster and drove sword through its head. The half-elf followed with several precision strikes to the zombie's chest before the undead being toppled over. Vaxel let two punches fly but one missed the zombie he was attacking. The other hit and managed to dislocate the arm of the undead. Aldalon fired another fiery beam at another zombie, this time hurting it. The burning zombie was next in line as it went to the side of its first comrade and lunged at Daeson, who ducked under the zombie's weak swing before pushing the zombie back. The first zombie tried to grapple Vaxel again, but he jumped back and kicked it across the face, severing the zombie's head from its body and the undead collapsed on the ground. The fourth undead took the first ones place before the fire Aldalon shot forth from his hands melted it and the burning zombie. The fifth and final zombie came forward and was easily destroyed by Vaxel and Daeson.

"Looks like the cultists have already raised a few defenders," Vaxel said, "May Kelemvor have mercy on them, for I will not Then again, Kelemvor will kill them as well."

Andill chuckled and the last part and the group started down the hall. They rounded a corner and something caught the paladin's eye.

"Look here," Ke'vn said, putting his hand to the wall, "It's a riddle," he began to read, "In daytime I lie pooled about, at night I cloak like a mist. I creep inside shut boxes and inside your tightened fist. You see me best when you can't see, for I do not exist."

Aldalon grumbled. He hated riddles, his old mentor Thaneus always brought up a riddle almost everyday and it kept getting on Aldalon nerves because he couldn't get it right.

Daeson looked at the riddle for five seconds and said, "Darkness!"

"You're a smart one," William said and inspected the door, "It looks like we need some kind of spell to open it."

"Stand aside!" Andill laughed, "And make way for the tiefling!" Andill's eyes glowed back for a second before casting a black fog at the door. It clicked open and the group went inside, a chest stood at the end of the hallway.

"Awesome!" Andill exclaimed, "I can't wait to get some," Aldalon interrupted him, "The chest is trapped, opening it will trigger some disease. We need someone who is immune to such things."

Ke'vn stepped forward, "You've got the right Paladin!"

"Alright," Aldalon said, "Go and open it."

Ke'vn walked forward and opened the chest, taking out a katana and bastard sword before an arrow flew out of nowhere and hit Kevin in the chest. He shrugged it off, and took out the arrow, "Mummy rot," the paladin said, "This is disease is supposed to turn your lungs to dust."

The group headed out of the small room and continued down the hall until that got to a bigger room with giant door. Daeson went up to the door and tried to open it.

"Locked," Daeson said, "But I think we could open this by answering another riddle on another door somewhere."

"Where would that door be?" Vaxel asked.

"Right down there," William said and walked up to another door and read, "In spring four pillars hold me up a shining dome above the earth. In summer two pillars support me, a doorway into mystery. In autum three pillars stand beneath me a temple of the bright city. In winter my pillars are crumbled to dust a ruin of ancient glory."

Aldalon's blood began to boil as Vaxel and Daeson looked at the riddle.

"Oh! This one is a play on another riddle!" Daeson exclaimed, "What walks on fourth legs in the mourning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs a night!"

"Man!" William exclaimed.

"No, humanoids," Daeson said, "Man isn't the only thing that this riddle can apply to."

The door clicked open and Vaxel walked in. The door slammed shut and locked itself. Aldalon watched as several explosions shook the tomb. The door opened again, this time, Vaxel was giving off a little smoke before revealing a strange rock that looked gold and green.

"What do you think this is?" Vaxel asked the group.

"Looks like this is some kind of unique metal, a decent blacksmith could do a ton of things with this," William said.

Andill huffed, "Enough with the rocks! Let's just split some cultist skulls!"

Aldalon looked at Andill, "Alright, geez, settle down please!"

"Fine!" Andill grumbled. The group came back to the giant door and Daeson opened it with ease. The next door had a symbol of sun.

"I am going to murder the person who designed this place with a sharp quill!" Andill roared, "How many riddles is this guy going to throw at us!"

Vaxel went up to the door and touched a necklace he had found in the treasure trove the orcs had at Old Owl Well. The necklace glowed bright and gave off a shearing light. The door clicked open and group walked in and came to a giant room lined with bookshelves. In the center, a female human sorcerer, a human female wizard, and a female dwarf that was wearing pitch-black armor. The three were summoning some kind of demon; the group was unable to interrupt the spell. A gigantic demon with horns and bat wings appeared in front of the casters.

"Oh look what we have here," The dwarf smiled, "More fitting sacrifices!"

"Kill them Malefus!" The human wizard said.

The large demon ran at the party, Aldalon noticed that something was off about this demon, like there was some kind of spell that made it bigger than its actual size. The only way to counter such a spell as this would be to send a more powerful spell at the target. Aldalon focused his magic and fired a strange beam at the demon. When the beam hit the demon, it significantly shrunk in size.

"Oh no!" The demon squealed, "Run!" with that the demon began a cowardly retreat to the back of the room. The dwarf in black took the opportunity to charge at the group, while the wizard and sorcerer both sent out a lightning bolt which hit Andill, Vaxel, Daeson, and William.

"Alright!" Ke'vn exclaimed, drawing his katana, "Let's do this!" the paladin charged at the dwarf and their blades clashed. Vaxel ran in next and took position behind the dwarf and tried to punch her in the back. The black draped dwarf managed to dodge the attack however. The other party members, excluding Aldalon, surrounded the dwarf and Ke'vn made the first strike against her. The dwarf was a little late on the parry and got struck in the arm before getting punched in the side by Vaxel. Daeson followed up the assault with a good jab to the dwarf's stomach, allowing William to drive his scythe into the dwarf's body and rip out her ribcage. The wizard smiled and called a fireball to hit the group, excluding Aldalon. Most of the party was engulfed in a giant fireball and looked like they had taken a beating once the spell dissipated. Aldalon looked at the wizard and shot a ray of fire at her. The attack managed to burn her, but not enough to kill. Ke'vn, Daeson, and William ran at the wizard, while Vollor, Andill, and Vaxel ran at the sorcerer. The enemy magic users each got a spell off before getting overwhelmed. Ke'vn's blade glowed blue before he stabbed the wizard in the chest. William followed up by hitting the wizard with the blunt end of his scythe and Daeson finished off the enemy wizard off with by decapitating her. Vaxel punched the sorcerer and sent her flying into the wall of the crypt. She fell down and looked as if she was paralyzed. Andill took this moment to go over to her and severe her head from her body.

"There we go!" Andill laughed manically before putting some of the sorcerer's blood on his face, "The more blood, the better."


	12. Chapter 12

The Forgotten Realms Book 12

As the party began to search the room where they had destroyed some cultists, they couldn't help but notice the imp that had been summoned was holding a book.

"Hey you!" Ke'vn said, "Give me that book!"

"No!" The imp snorted.

"Very well," Ke'vn smiled and went over to the imp, "I guess I have no other choice!" he put his foot down and squished the imp under the foot of his boot.

"A man after my own thinking!" Andill laughed.

"Lets see here," Ke'vn said, taking the book out of the dead imp's hands, "This looks like it is on the dead three."

"We have no time for stories!" Daeson exclaimed, "We've got to get out of here before more cultists come!"

"We're fine Daeson," Aldalon said, taking the book and leafing through it, "The Neverwinter Library could use this."

"How do you know?" William asked.

"I just get that feeling," Aldalon said, "Now let's get back to Krisov."

The party left the crypt and headed back to the spot where they had last seen the ranger.

"Excellent timing!" A voice said before the ranger jumped down from the trees, "How goes it?"

"We took care of the cultists and found a book on the dead three," Aldalon said.

"Interesting, well you might want to head to Neverwinter and speak to Laroyss."

"Will do," Vollor said with a bow, "Let's head out!"

A few short hours later they came to the Moonstone mask, outside, Laroyss was practicing shooting a longbow at a target, and all of the arrows had missed though.

"Looks like you've been having trouble with that bow Laroyss," Ke'vn laughed, "I thought Drow were proficient with longbows."

"Being proficient with a weapon and being skilled with a weapon are two different things," Laroyss said before letting another arrow fire, this time it missed its mark entirely and almost hit someone in the up on the wall guarding Neverwinter, "Sorry!" Laroyss yelled.

"It's okay," The guy shouted back, "You managed to kill a wolf that was coming to close!"

Laroyss laughed before a wood elf that looked about 6 feet with tan skin, blue eyes, and dirty blonde hair stepped forward.

"Maybe I could teach you a thing or two?" The elf smiled.

"Keydrian!" Daeson exclaimed in shock.

"Daeson!" The wood elf ranger exclaimed.

"I never thought I'd meet you here," Daeson groaned.

"What can I say, us half brothers always run into each other!"

"Now is the worst possible time!"

Laroyss snickered again, "You all will have two months before you gain an audience with Lord Nasher."

"Two months?" The group exclaimed, "We can't wait that long!"

"Well there is a loophole," Laroyss said.

"I almost forgot!" Ke'vn exclaimed, "If we get one more Neverwinter Nine member we can talk to Lord Nasher immediately!"

"How do you know this?" Aldalon asked the paladin.

"He used to use it to talk to Lord Nasher about daily going ons," Laroyss said, "That was until Lord Nasher said if he came one more time he would be turned into a chicken for a few days."

"Interesting way of keeping someone out," Keydrian said, "Perhaps I could use it on Daeson when ever he gets bossy."

"Oh no you won't!" Daeson exclaimed.

"Anyways I know that the Wizard of the Neverwinter Nine is in need of help," Laroyss said.

"That I am drow," A voice said before an elven woman in high ranking wizard's attire floated down.

"How mighty you are," Laroyss said, rolling his eyes.

The wizard gave Laroyss a scowl before turning to the group.

"Listen I hear you adventurers were responsible for clearing out Port Llast with Ta'nara. Is that true?"

Aldalon nodded, "Yes, yes it is."

"Good, I need you all to go back there with me."

"Very well, when do we head out?"

"Now,"

About a day later the group and the wizard were riding in a carriage to Port Llast.

"So, why do we need to go to Port Llast?" William asked.

"Undead have been shambling in there around noon, they're searching for something but I do not know what it is."

"So we just need to run through some zombies?" Andill asked the wizard.

"No, I do know that the undead are coming from a cemetery nearby," The wizard said.

"Alright, we'll head there first," Aldalon said.

"I will try and set up some wards against the undead, but whatever you do, do not interrupt their march."

"Can do ma'am," William said.

After two more days of talking and planning, the group arrived at Port Llast.

"What time is it?" Daeson asked.

"About eleven fifty in the morning," The wizard said, "We should hide somewhere until the undead are gone."

"But where?" Keydrian asked, "All these houses are boarded up."

"Not this one," The wizard, going over to a house that had been abandoned for at least a week.

The adventures ran in the house and took cover behind something.

"Now I need you people to not make a sound," The wizard said, "Unless you have a death wish."

Several minutes later the moans of zombies echoed outside. The group, surprisingly, held their silence until the moans went away.

"Alright," The wizard, I need you all to head out to the crypt, pronto."

Aldalon nodded and headed out the door, his friends close behind. After a few hours, the party came to a large cemetery, with several hills, graves, and a small chapel with zombies littering the landscape.

"Alright, how are we going to do this?" Aldalon asked the group.

Without another word Vaxel ran toward a zombie and drove his fist into its chest.

"There is your answer!" Andill exclaimed before charging at the zombies and screaming in a bloody rage. The rest followed in suite. Keydrian let a few arrows fly the arrows missed their target completely. Daeson ran over to two of the zombies and swung his sword with all his might, taking their heads off.

"Nice one!" William smiled, before using his scythe to pull off the head of another one. Aldalon noticed that some of the zombies were standing in a nice line. He smiled and ran to the front of the line and sent out a lightning bolt from his finger tips, cooking some of the zombies to a nice golden brown. Kedrian fired several more arrows but they all missed again.

"Kedrian," Daeson said, "You are the worst ranger ever…of all time!"

"It's not my fault," Keydrian said, "Someone put air in my way."

"Get them you worthless thralls!" A voice exclaimed from inside the church.

Several more zombies floated over the hill, with a giant "wraith" with an oversized cloak on.

"Amaonekqwjdk wkrjekrnweklrhn jweirkhewlkhr," The wraith said. While it sounded like the gibberish to the group, it felt like the thing was speaking directly to their minds, "Come, and embrace the end!" the voice in the party's head said

Keydrian's eyes began to glow, "Yes master, I will obey!" the ranger knocked several arrows and fired them into Daeson's back.

"Oh now you actually know how to shoot a bow!" Daeson roared, "When this is over so help me I will beat you until you meet the gods!"

Vollor ran over to the most recent zombies with Andill and the two made quick work of them.

"Judging by the way this wraith is made, positive energy should inflict considerable damage on it," Aldalon said.

"Say no more!" Vollor exclaimed and pointed a finger at the wraith. As the positive energy hit the wraith it let out a deafening screech. The cleric fell to the ground; While Keydrian's eyes glowed brighter.

"Nice going genius!" Andill exclaimed.

Kedrian smiled and fired four arrows at Aldalon, all of them hit as the sorcerer began to cough up blood.

"That is it!" Daeson exclaimed running over to Keydrian, "You're doing to have to deal with me now!"

Ke'vn ran to the wraith as his sword began to glow blue, the paladin swung his blade down and managed to his the wraith. Vaxel ran to the wraith before pausing.

"This isn't any ordinary wraith!" Vaxel exclaimed, "This one seems to be made out of thousands of souls!"

"wjhdlkasdhl akhs aehrkwlk," The wraith said, "Indeed we are, and you all shall join us!"

"You know what I have to say to that?" Aldalon smiled, coughing up more blood, he stuck up his middle digit and laughed, "Do the dead undead that!"

The wraith only laughed and swung at Vaxel, managing to scrape him across the chest before having a kick pass through it.

William joined the other two on the wraith and managed to strike it with his scythe.

"wjrlek wkerjlk qwelkjwqlk?" The wraith laughed, "Can't you see the futility of it all?"

"That is it!" Ke'vn exclaimed, "On the count of three guys. One, two, three!" with that the paladin lunged at the "wraith" the other two plus Aldalon joined in and dealt massive damage to the thing.

The wraith began to collapse, but not before a soul flew into Keydrian's body.

"Alright!" Daeson exclaimed and drove his sword into Kedrian's chest, "That was for shooting me in the back with those arrows!"

Keydrian's eyes stopped glowing and he hit the ground. The cleric finally got up and rushed over to aid his fallen comrade. The wound was sealed and Keydrian got up.

"What did I miss guys?" He asked everyone.

"Oh you didn't miss anything!" Daeson exclaimed, "But you're not going to miss the beating I'm about to inflict on you for shooting me!"

Kedrian got up and ran around the chapel yard, Daeson being right behind him.

"Hey! I was under the effects of mind control! I couldn't help it!"

"Oh yes you could you little brat!"

"Just like real brothers," Aldalon sighed before the group let out a hardy laugh


	13. Chapter 13

The Forgotten Realms Book 13

Daeson finally caught up with Keydrian and smacked him on the back of the head with his shield.

"Enough with these sibling squabbles," Vaxel said, rolling his eyes, "We need to take care of whatever is raising these things."

"Wasn't the wraith doing that?" Ke'vn asked.

"No, it was not," Vaxel said, "While that wraith was powerful it didn't have that much control over the dead, no there is something that else here that is doing this."

The small church doors swung open, outside stepped some kind of lich.

"Correct you are my friend," The lich smirked, "Now it is time for your life to end!"

The group ran towards the lich, Vaxel tried to hit the lich, but missed.

"Now my friends I shall sing a song!" The lich smiled and pulled out a lute, "Will you all sing along?" the lich began to strum his lute and all of a sudden, a giant fireball flew out of the sky and hit a good portion of the group. Aldalon fired a fiery ray at the lich. The attack made contact before the lich screamed.

"Ouch that ray was hot! As for you you're really not!"

Aldalon sighed.

Andill charged at the lich and cleaved the lute it had into.

"That was a very good plan but it is moot, for now I shall pull out a flute from my bag of loot!" The lich smiled and began to play a tune on the flute. As the song played Aldalon spaced out.

"Just great," Daeson sighed and ran up to the lich, barely managing to stab it in the stomach.

The lich began to play the tune again, but nothing happened. Ke'vn ran in next and made his blade glow blue before slicing the lich across the chest. William followed with a jab to the lich's stomach. Vollor jumped forward and managed to cleave the skeletal lich's arm of with his sword.

Keydrian nocked two arrows and let them fly, hitting the lich in both his eyes.

"Alright writer!" Daeson exclaimed, "Don't you start rhyming too!"

The lich screamed in terror, "Now you put an end to my reign, and saved my captive from great pain!" he said and dissipated.

Aldalon snapped out of his trance and saw a small necklace; he identified it as the phylactery that was keeping the lich in this word. He pointed a finger at the necklace and let and arrow of flame fly. The spell hit the necklace and burned it up.

"There, he won't trouble us anymore," Aldalon smiled before a muffled scream came from the chapel.

"Alright, let's go save us a captive!" William shouted and ran into the chapel.

"Guess we better flow him in," Ke'vn said, "Just in case if he gets into more trouble."

The group nodded and ran into the chapel, where William was busy untying and ungaging a woman.

"Thank you for saving me!" The woman exclaimed, "I thought that lich was going to kill me after he caught me when I was snooping on him."

"Do you usually do this?" William asked.

"Yes, I usually snoop on people."

"I see," William said, "You better not snoop on people anymore, there is not telling what might happen."

"I know, I know, but I have some information to tell you guys. The lich had a phylactery that looked like a necklace!" The woman exclaimed.

"Already took care of that," Aldalon sighed, "Now can we get on with the rest of our adventure?"

"We should at least escort this woman to Port Llast," Ke'vn said, "It is the right thing to do!"

Daeson nodded, "Come on, before more undead come."

"Wait a second!" Vollor said and spied something in the corner of the room, he went over to the thing and picked it up, it was a small, glowing white shard, "What do you think it is?"

William looked at it nervously and snatched it out of Vollor's hand, "I don't know, but I feel like as if I need to hang onto it."

"Alright," Daeson said, "Now can we go?"

"Yes," Andill said, "We can go."

The party successfully escorted the girl to Port Llast, the wizard met them by a tavern.

"What of the undead?" The wizard asked them.

"We took care of it," Ke'vn said, "It was not a problem."

"You have my approval then," The wizard said, "Now let's head back to Neverwinter."

When the party arrived at the Moonstone mask, Laroyss approached them with a grin on his face.

"Shall we go to Lord Nasher now?" He asked.

Aldalon nodded and not a moment later, they found themselves facing Lord Nasher, who was glaring at Ke'vn then summoned for the wizard.

"Turn this man into a chicken," Nasher said, "It looks like he has forgotten what I told him last time."

"No need my Lord," Laroyss said, "Ke'vn has actually earned your ear this time."

Nasher sighed, "Very well, I suppose the others have as well."

"Of course they have Lord Nasher," Laroyss said.

"Very well, what is it that you all wish to speak to me about?" Lord Nasher asked the party.

"I come here on behalf of Westgate," Aldalon said, "I come to confirm that it has indeed been seized by goblins."

"Thank you, you have my sympathies," Lord Nasher said, "Is there anything else you need?"

"I do remember Sand said something about this note,"

"Laroyss, bring Sand in here right away!" Nasher ordered the paladin.

"Yes my lord," Laroyss said and left the room.

"My lord," Vaxel said, "I've come to deliver this satchel to you."

"Thank you," Lord Nasher said and ordered a guard to take a satchel Vaxel had pulled out.

"We bring you news from West Harbor," William said, "We have been attacked by a Thayian lich and will need back up if we are to survive."

"That is strange matter," He said and looked at Daeson, "Colonel I suppose you have a good reason for being here?"

"Sir I come to report that almost all of the fifth squad of Neverwinter Militia have been killed, I am the only survivor," Daeson.

"Colonel, I order you to travel with these adventurers and hone your skill," Nasher said, "I might have a task for you, later."

Daeson saluted, "Yes sir!"

"As for you Keydrian," Nasher said, "You are to chart any strange activity you come across and report it to me. You're one of my top scouts for a reason."

"Yes sir!" Keydrian exclaimed.

The door to the castle busted open, Laroyss walked in with Sand slung across his shoulder.

"I say Laroyss," Sand said, "That was very rude of you to barge in like that!"

"Yes, but I know I have to use force in order to get you to do anything. Besides, this is urgent." Laroyss shot back and set Sand down.

Sand nodded and walked up to Lord Nasher, "What is it you wish my lord?"

"It is about the report you gave the blue hair elf here," Nasher said.

"Oh yes, it seems as if rifts are opening up all across this land. I've been able to the pinpoint the locations of some. The first was by Port Llast, which has become in active somehow, and another by Baldur's Gate, as well as on the surface of Menzoberranzan just to name a few."

"Adventurers," Lord Nasher said, "I am ordering you to head to Baldur's Gate to seal that rift! Dismissed!"

The party nodded and headed outside the castle, Laroyss walked up to Aldalon and grabbed him on the shoulder.

"You're not heading to Baldur's gate just yet, you're going to need to hold up your end of the bargain," Laroyss smiled, "We'll be heading to Menzoberranzan to take care of that rift, and my sister," Laroyss said, "Now, shall we go and engage in a little wanton destruction?"

"Very well, Laroyss," Aldalon smiled.

"I like the sound of that," Laroyss smiled, "Let's go."


	14. Chapter 14

The Forgotten Realms Book 14

Laroyss smiled at the party, "Now, shall we head to Menzoberranzan or do you folks need time to prepare?"

"Let's head out there right now!" Andill exclaimed, "I've been waiting to crack a few Mindflayer skulls!"

"We're not going to go into that part of the Underdark," Laroyss said, "It will be about a three day journey there, so it is preferred that we start moving now!"

"Yes sir," Daeson said.

"I find it funny how you're taking orders from a guy shorter than you," Keydrian chuckled.

"I'm only tall where it counts," Laroyss smirked.

"And where does it count?" Keydrian asked.

"Moving right along!" Laroyss exclaimed and headed for the gates of Neverwinter. The party followed him and soon they were out on yet another journey.

After two and half days, the party came to a clearing.

"Laroyss!" A voice exclaimed, "You've been hard to track down!"

A red wizard with an eye patch covering an eye that looked like it had been gouged out walked in front of the party with several gnolls around him.

"Oh look at that, I'm going to take care of even more of my past!" Laroyss laughed, "You adventurers should continue on, I have to finish something up." He said and summoned his wolf Fenris.

Aldalon nodded, he knew Laroyss could take care of this so he rushed on ahead with the others to a clearing. In the middle was some strange purple sphere and around it were people who were made of pure arcane energy. Andill waited two seconds before bull rushing the crowd of arcane people. Vaxel ran in next and managed to punch one in the stomach. Daeson followed right behind them and landed two sword strikes to the torso of an arcane person.

Aldalon took a deep breath and let out a fireball at on of the beings, which absorbed it and shot it right back at him. The attack hit him and sent him back a few feet, "Damn it," he said under his breath, "there has got to be someway to defeat them!"

Keydrian nocked three more arrows and let them fly; each one missed its intended target.

"Quick!" Daeson yelled, "Someone possess him!"

"Very funny Daeson," Keydrian growled, "I could just as easily hit you from here!"

"You can try it!" Daeson laughed.

Keydrian growled and summon a wolf, "Ammy might be able to do something about it!"

"Will you two shut up!" Ke'vn snapped and ran up to another arcane being, this time, cutting it across the chest with his katana.

Four of the arcane beings began to cast a fireball spell; Aldalon was quick to react by using another fireball to counter spell it. The beings looked at Aldalon and used another fireball to counter spell that. Aldalon smirked and sent another fireball to counter spell the counter spell. The attack was successful and the arcane beings screeched in pain before disappearing.

"Nice!" Vollor exclaimed.

"I was the best Spell Pong player on the Dragon coast," Aldalon smiled. William ran in and decapitated an arcane being. Daeson managed to finish off another with a ki attack while Vaxel punched the last one so hard the things that were holding the being together were shattered.

After the last body being had been taken care of, the group went over and inspected the purple energy ball. William began to shift uncomfortably while Aldalon picked up the shard and looked at it.

"I'll be taking this one," He said and put it in his pocket.

Laroyss can back with more blood on his face and his wolf munching on some intestines.

"Well I asked the wizard if he was sorry for what he did and he said no," Laroyss said, "You would of thought he would have learned his lesson the first time when I gouged out his eye and made him eat it."

The group tried to keep from throwing up, except for Keydrian, Andill, and Ke'vn.

"You did that?" Keydrian asked, "Did you ask him what the eye tasted like?"

"When I did he just cursed me some more," Laroyss said, "Anyways I tore open his chest and Fenrir had a little snack on his innards, while he was still alive of course."

"Boy I wish I could have seen that," Andill smiled.

Laroyss laughed as Aldalon could barley hold his lunch, "Shall we head to Menzoberranzan now?"

"Yeah," William said, taking deep breaths, "Lets."

The party hiked for about another day before coming to a wall with a rock beside it.

"You elves take these hoods," Laroyss said, handing a red hood to Aldalon and a brown hood to Keydrian, "Your kind isn't well liked down here."

When Aldalon and Keydrian put on the hoods, Laroyss waved his sword over the rune stone and it slid open.

"How did you open that?" Daeson asked Laroyss.

"Protection against Evil and Protection against Chaos," Laroyss smiled, "Not many Drow would know those spells."

The party began to descend down into the Menzoberranzan before Laroyss spoke up, "Oh, I need you people do to something."

"What is it?" Ke'vn asked him.

"I need you to take care of Laeisstra, she was an old friend of mine but now she is my sister's girlfriend," Laroyss explained, "I will also need you to recover all the books from the library of my family."

"We'll see what we can do," Daeson said.

The group made into to the Menzoberranzan market place and Laroyss approached a vendor.

"Laroyss!" The vendor exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in fifty years! What brings you back here?"

"I'm here to take care of some unfinished business," Laroyss said, "Get me what I usually get."

The drow vendor nodded and gave Laroyss two scrolls.

"And if I were you," Laroyss said, "You might want to keep your head low for the next thirty minutes."

The drow vendor nodded and Laroyss began to walk away, the gang right behind him. A few minutes later, they came to a huge stalagmite that had been converted into a dwelling.

"Are you ready?" Laroyss asked the crew.

"Yes," Aldalon said, "Ready as we'll ever be."


	15. Chapter 15

The Forgotten Realms Book 15

Laroyss handed Aldalon two scrolls with a strange rune of them, "You need to put these somewhere in the house, I know the words to activate them and blow this place sky high. Once you set them down, you should get out of here as fast as you can."

"Can do sir," Aldalon said

Laroyss smiled and kicked down the door, "Sister!" he yelled, "I'm home!"

A drow woman, who looked about Laroyss' age with everything that would make a guy "fall in love with her" stood at the end of the hallway. She had on all black armor, similar to the one the dwarf in the crypt had.

Laroyss smiled, "So, Akorwae, it's been a long time."

"What has it been, brother, Fifty years?" The drow blackguard smirked

"Forty Eight, Forty Eight since I escaped this place, it will be forty nine next week," Laroyss said.

Akorwae laughed, "Understandable why I would forget. What was I to be thinking when my little brother ran off?"

A scowl of anger appeared on Laroyss' face, "I'm older than you and you know it!"

Akorwae laughed, "And yet I was in charge of you Laroyss. Like the older sibling." 

Laroyss burst into a fit of rage, "Damn you! I always hated being treated as the younger. All the things I had to do for you then. I was nothing more than your personal servant. I don't like obligations like that. Or obligations like you."

Akorwae cackled manically, "I can see only one way this can end. Ether you, or I, or both of us must die!"  
>Laroyss laughed, a blood frenzy taking over him "Bring it then! I have been waiting for this chance for nearly fifty years!"<p>

Akorwae looked at the others, "Guards! Kill the rest of the adventurers! Leave the blue hair elf alive though, Lolth needs a sacrifice!"

"Why does everyone want to kill me!" Aldalon whined.

"Oh be quiet you big baby!" Andill snapped, "Now we need to get to the library!"

Two orcs ran at the heroes, Laroyss easily decapitated them. The group used these moments to run up some stairs and into what could be considered a dinning room. At the top of the stairs, they noticed a swarm of bugbears and orcs, with a drow woman in wizard's robes standing in the back, floating a bit above the ground.

"Kill them!" The drow woman exclaimed.

Aldalon tried to throw an ice storm into the thick of things, but he lost concentration and couldn't. Vollor nimbly jumped up the stairs and ran at one of the orcs. Andill ran up the stairs and into the thick of things, easily decapitating one bugbear. Daeson ran up to an orc and prepared to strike him. William easily slid under a table, emerging on the other side and taking the arm off an orc. Vaxel, not to be out done, nimbly jumped from a table to a chair before axe kicking an orc's face into the floor. Keydrian kicked down and table and used it as some make shift cover. He sent three arrows at one orc, two missed while the other one hit it right in the head. Two seconds later the head exploded.

"Keydrian!" Daeson roared, "What have I told you about using you explosive tipped arrows?"

Keydrian smiled, "What have I told you about being so mad, bro?"

Daeson growled and jabbed his sword into the chest of an orc. A bug bear and an orc pulled out two bows and shot at Aldalon, each of them hit him in the shoulder. The elf almost cried out in pain but the drow woman attempted to take over the Andill's mind. The barbarian roared and the drow wizard was taken aback. Keydrian's wolf pet ran forward and swiped at her, leaving some minor cuts on her skin but nothing major. Aldalon saw an orc in front of the wolf and let a lightning ball fly from his hands. The attack fried the wolf and orc to a crisp.

"You jerk!" Keydrian exclaimed.

"It'll be back tomorrow," Aldalon said, rolling his eyes.

Keydrian knocked an arrow and aimed at Aldalon but not before getting blind sided from another arrow. The wood elf whipped around and fired his arrow at the bugbear that had shot him. The arrow went straight through the bugbears head and flew into the wall. Daeson held his sword in the air and did spin attack, slicing the orc with the bow in two. Vollor jabbed his sword into an orc who was right behind him right as Andill lopped the head off of another. William began to focus and tried to cast a spell on the drow, who easily counter spelled it. Vaxel managed to snap the neck of a poor or while Ke'vn tried to put his hands on his head and looked at the drow woman, as he did, he began to drool.

"Oh great," Andill sighed, "An overwhelming aura!"

Ke'vn then ran toward an orc and stabbed it in the chest before taking off its head. The drow wizard looked at Andill again, this time, she invaded his mind. However, the barbarian was able to resist the command of the drow. Keydrian nocked an arrow and let it fly, this time; it hit the drow woman's shoulder. The girl growled and ran behind a door, sealing the door. The group mopped up the few remaining servants while Andill got a hold of himself. Vaxel ran up to the door and began to punch it.

"Here's Vaxy!" He exclaimed as the door began to fall apart.

All of sudden, several arrows shot at Vaxel, he nimbly avoided them, landing on the ground, he turned around and saw that Aldalon had been turned into an elven pin cushion.

"Gods damn it Vaxel!" Aldalon roared, coughing up blood, "Don't you EVER do that again."

"Well looks like those monsters got my revenge for me," Keydrian smiled.

"You're lucky I'm going to restrain myself," Aldalon growled.

He looked at the room of orcs and sent a fireball at them. It exploded, burning all of them in a fire. The group ran in and noticed that the drow woman was now being guard by four others.

Vollor pointed at one of them and send a burst of negative energy from his finger tip, the energy shot forth and hit the guard, killing him instantly. Another guard, who was dressed in all black attire, charged at them. Ke'vn slid under the man as a blue glow engulfed his katana; he impaled the guard with his weapon as he stood up. As the guard slipped to the ground, breathing his last few breaths, Vaxel jumped over him and kicked another guard, who looked like a sorcerer, in the face, shattering their skull. Daeson ran up to the last guard and powered up ki attack with his weapon, he sliced the guard across the chest several times before driving his sword into the guards neck. Aldalon focused his energy into a flame arrow and shot it at the drow, the flame arrow was absorb by a necklace, which shattered. The drow woman fell to the ground.

"What am I doing here?" The drow female asked.

"What do you mean what are you doing here?" Andill growled, going up to her and lifting her by the shirt collar, "You were trying to kill us!"

"Who…who sent you?" The girl asked.

"Laroyss,"

"Laroyss? Oh please let me see him!"

Andill threw the lady onto the ground and knocked her out before slinging her over his shoulder, "Yeah, you'll see him in the interrogation room," Andill grunted as Aldalon set something down, "Come on, let's go!"

"Look at this!" William said, pulling a book on Luskans from the shelf, "This might come in handy!"

"Very well," Andill sighed, "You can read your books, but I'll be heading out."

"Right behind you!" Aldalon said and began to head out with the others, when they got downstairs they saw Laroyss and his sister fighting, each had sustained significant scars. Laroyss held his blade high in the air as it glowed with a blue light. The blade of his sister began to glow red. The two blades hit each other, each one letting off sparks. With a sudden roar, Laroyss over powered his sister and cut through her body diagonally. As Laroyss' sister's body began to fall apart, Laroyss went over to a necklace she had on her neck and stomped on it. The necklace shattering into several thousand pieces as souls began to escape from the necklace. Laroyss turned around, "Did you set down the explosive scrolls?"

Aldalon nodded.

"Good," Laroyss said and ushered the group out of the home, he leaned in close and whispered in Aldalon's ear, "The magic words are what the f."

Aldalon nodded and took a deep breath, "What the f!" he roared and was almost scared out of his seat when the building was blown to bits.

Laroyss smiled, "Looks like this was one," He said before putting on some strange kind of glasses, "Explosive ending!"


	16. Chapter 16

The Forgotten Realms Book 16

"What the hells are those glasses for?" Andill asked Laroyss.

"Oh, no reason," Laroyss smiled.

"Laroyss!" A voice yelled, all of a sudden, a drow female in the same attire Laroyss' sister had been in ran up to the paladin.

"Excuse me," Laroyss sighed, "Go on ahead I will meet you outside."

The party of adventurers gave a nod and ran out of the Underdark. About thirty minutes later, Laroyss emerged from the passage with blood splattered on his face along with various brain parts.

"I'm sorry," Laroyss sighed, "That was my niece, now I have a special gift for you all." Laroyss pulled gold ring with a ruby in the center off of the necklace of rings on his neck. Various flame etchings adorned the ring, "This once belonged to my father," Laroyss said handing the ring to Aldalon before saying, "Even the greatest power is no good without control," the paladin took another ring from his neck, this time it was silver with an amethyst gem in the center, "This one used to belong to my niece," he said before handing it to Vaxel, "Just remember that innocence is easily corrupted," Vaxel nodded while Laroyss took a mithril ring with a sapphire in the center and handed it to Vollor, "This ring belonged to my sister," Laroyss said with a pause, "Remember that evil gives power, for a price," The drow went to Andill and handed him a bronze, garnet studded ring, "This one belonged to an old friend of mine," Laroyss said, "Tiefling, never underestimate the power of friendship," Laroyss turned to William and handed him a ring with gold and topaz center, "William, this one belonged to my mother," Laroyss said, "Young one, remember, short sightedness will lead to your downfall," Laroyss turned to Daeson and handed him a silver ring with three pearls, the center pearl was large, while the other two were smaller. "This ring belonged to my brother, remember this colonel, Evil will always meet its end," Laroyss looked at Ke'vn, "Friend, I give this ring that the person who trained us had given me so long ago," Laroyss said, "Just remember what our mentor told us, sacrifice should always be for the greater good," Lastly he turned to Keydrian and gave him a wooden ring with a large opal, "This belong to an elven ranger, just like you. Remember that no matter what you do, someone will always hate you."

"Wow, that was very thoughtful of you Laroyss," Daeson smiled, "Thanks."

"Don't get used to it kid," Laroyss huffed, "Now get to Baldur's Gate!"

The group quivered a bit and bowed before running off down a path.

After a few days of walking down the path, the party heard a rustling in the trees. Andill drew his axe and walked over to the tree, all a sudden, a Halfling fell on top of the tiefling. The halfing was about as tall as a adolescent human, he had brown eyes and black hair and was wielding two daggers.

"A thief!" Ke'vn exclaimed, taking out his sword.

"Oh be quiet," The Halfling said, standing up, "You wouldn't know a thief even if they stole your wallet!"

Ke'vn growled before Aldalon spoke up, "What were you doing in that tree anyways?"

"I was just taking a nap!" The Halfling exclaimed, "And the rest is none of your business!"

"Hey where is that Halfling!" A deep voice exclaimed, "That is the last time he rips me off!"

"Uh," The Halfling said, almost scared half to death, "Do you mind if I travel with you?"

"No I don't," Aldalon said, bending down to talk to him, "But you're going to pull your own weight around here! Also no stealing from the group members!"

"Will do," The Halfling smiled.

"Make sure your fingers aren't crossed,"

"Damn it!"

Aldalon smiled as the Halfling walked up to the party and introduced himself, "The nickname is "Shorty" to some or "Silver tongue" to others."

"Interesting," Vaxel said, "Now, let's get to the town of Baldur's Gate already!"

All of a sudden a female cat-person walked by them, she had pale, olive green eyes with waist long brown hair and a leopard print pattern.

"Oye!" "Shorty" yelled, "What are you doing out here Tarra?"

"Oh me?" The cat folk said, "Well I'm just looking for some stories to share with others!"

"Well I have a few stories," Aldalon smiled, "If you want to hear."

Tarra nodded while Aldalon relayed the stories of his adventures to her. When he finished, she let out a yelp of happiness.

"Those stories are the best ever! I'm going to write songs and paint pictures about them!"

With that, the cat-folk skipped into the forest.

"I wish I had a ball of yarn for her," "Shorty" grumbled, "Maybe then she'd go away."

Andill got up and smacked "Shorty" on the back of the head, sending him into the dirt, "Come on, let's get to Baldur's Gate."

After about a day or two, the group reached Baldur's Gate.

"Now if there is any place we should go to learn about that silver shard, it would be the Elf Song Tavern," Daeson said.

"Remember that one time I almost blew the place sky high?" Keydrian said.

"Don't remind me," Daeson said and rolled his eyes. As soon as the party walked into the tavern the barkeeper let out a yelp.

"Oh no! It's Keydrian!"

"Don't worry," The wood elf ranger laughed, "I'm not doing any experiments today!"

The barkeeper gulped and nodded, in the corner was a man with a black hood on. Aldalon approached the man, "Excuse me sir, do I know you?"

"Oh hello good sir!" The man exclaimed.

"B!" Aldalon exclaimed back, "Hey dude how have you been?"

"Well, I'm still charting the farthest I can be from the circle," B said, "But to be honest, I'm to busy watching the stars!"

"Do you know this guy?" Keydrian said a sense of awkwardness in his voice.

"Yeah, he helped me escape Westgate when it was being attacked by goblins," Aldalon said.

"Why yes! Did I tell you about a rat I used to know there? He was a big and odd fellow!" B said.

"Okay, I'm scared now," Keydrian said, backing off.

"Wow!" Daeson exclaimed, "No one has been able to out crazy Keydrian!"

"It isn't that he just doesn't, uh, smell right," Keydrian muttered.

"Anyways B, have you seen a silver shard around here?" Aldalon asked his friend.

"Why no I haven't I'm sorry my good man," B said, "but I'll keep an eye out for it, I do like shiny things."

Aldalon nodded and looked up to see a group of magic users talking amongst themselves.

"Excuse me," Aldalon said, walking up to them, "But you haven't seen a silver shard around here, have you?"

"Yes we have, but some bandits have made an encampment around the thing," A magic user said, "Good luck trying to take them down. They should be north of here."

Aldalon looked at the others, "Who's up for a little bandit bashing?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Andill smiled, "I've been waiting to put some blood on this axe again!"

The others nodded and soon the group was on their way again. About a few hours later, the group stopped outside of a compound. Aldalon took a peak inside and saw a very familiar person yelling at some bandits. It was a female tiefling with a black sun mark on her neck. Aldalon and the others took to some bushes nearby.

"Okay, what is the plan?" Aldalon asked the group.

"I say we use Keydrian to draw some of the bandits to the wall and ambush them," Daeson said.

"Yeah, but Keydrian can't hit a target even if it was right in front of him," Vaxel said, "You think we could send the rogue in?"

"No way!" Shorty exclaimed, "They'd definitely see me!"

"We could just charge in," Andill said.

"No, there has got to be something else we could do," Aldalon said.

"I think I heard something!" One of the bandits said, "I'll go check it out."

The bandit began to walk to the gates. William was quick to react, casting a spell to keep the person dumbfounded. Shorty slipped behind the bandit and slit his throat.

"Alright, what are we going to do?" Daeson said, "We need to know and fast!"

"Hey! You see anything?" One of the bandits called back.

Aldalon tried his best to impersonate the bandit, "No I haven't, it is just…Oh my god! There is a battalion from Neverwinter at our gates!"

"What!" The tiefling female exclaimed, "To arms!"

A few of the bandits tried to run away but were quickly killed. Keydrian jumped out of the bushes and fired an arrow at bandit. The arrow flew through the sky and hit the bandit in the face, instantly exploding and blowing the head clean off.

"So much for being subtle," Vaxel sighed.

"Subtle is a word not in my vocabulary!" Keydrian exclaimed as the bandits ran forward. Aldalon jumped out of cover and threw a fireball in the direction of five of the bandits, who were attempting to sneak up on the party, the fireball hit and incinerated two of the five bandits. Andill ran up into the fray and engaged the tiefling woman, she dodged his three attacks before landing a blow to the barbarian's stomach. Daeson engaged another bandit, while Ke'vn and William went to engage the five bandits Aldalon had revealed. "Shorty" began to creep up behind one of the five bandits and managed to drive one of his daggers through her stomach before quickly jabbing her in the neck. Vollor attempted to kill one of the bandits but failed. Keydrian's pet Ammy ran forward and clawed at another bandit, who stabbed the dog and poisoned it.

"Why you little!" Keydrian growled before firing another explosive arrow at the bandit, this time the arrow hit the attacker in the stomach and left a gaping hole where the stomach should be.

The tiefling female managed to stab Andill several times before kicking him across the face. Vaxel saw bandit trying to sneak up behind Andill and leapt into action, driving his fist into the bandit's spine. A loud sound the sounded like bones grinding on each other echoed through out the battle field, Vaxel followed by grabbing the bandit's head and snapping his neck. Daeson's blade glowed with ki energy before he jabbed his target several times, he finished the bandit off by slicing off his arm, then leg, and then drove his bastard sword through the bandit's chest. Aldalon ran in range of two bandits and sent a lightning ball from his fingertips, frying them. "Shorty" latched onto the back of another one and drove his dagger into their neck. Another one of the bandits lunged at Ke'vn and managed to stab him multiple times in the chest, leg, and neck.

Ke'vn's blade began to glow bright blue as he began to bleed profusely, "I'll show you pain!" He charged at the bandit and kneed him in the stomach, the man collapsed onto the ground gasping for breath. Ke'vn jumped over the man and got ready to strike, "Say good night!" Ke'vn exclaimed and decapitated the man, the blue glow blowing the man's head clean off. The last bandit tried to attack Ke'vn, but William jumped in front of the paladin and cut the attacker in half. The female teifling began another precise strike aimed at Andill's heart, but Andill saw this and grabbed her hand before breaking her arm and throwing her on the ground.

"Well, Well, Well," Aldalon smiled while walking up to the tiefling, "Look what we have here."

"I thought I'd seen the last of you at Westgate," The tiefling sighed.

Aldalon laughed, "Well, it seems that you've been keeping a shard that we need to get."

"What?" The tiefling said, pulling out a shard, "This thing? Take it!"

With that the tiefling threw Aldalon the shard, Vaxel snatched it out of the air and put his foot on the tiefling's head.

"Now, let's do the world a favor," Vaxel smiled, "Shall we?"

The tiefling laughed and threw a smoke bomb, when it cleared she was no where in sight.

"Look over there!" The rogue said, pointing to a chest.

He ran over to it and began to inspect it, "It has some kind of trap on it, but never fear! "Shorty" is here!" with a few more clicks of the chest the Halfling managed to open the chest and pulled out a dagger, "Oo! I could use this!" He smiled.

Aldalon went over to the chest and found a hood that he could put on; he did so, but kept the hood down to show off his blue hair. William picked up a helmet, the paladin picked out a cape, Vaxel obtained a new robe, the cleric pulled out another shield, which he promptly discarded before pulling out a holy symbol, Daeson immediately grabbed the shield and fastened it to his arm (after taking of his other shield of course), Keydrian's eyes glowed bright as he looked in the chest.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Keydrian said as he pulled out a few portable alchemy labs and fletching devices, "I've been looking for these all over the place!"

"Convenient that they've been stashed here," Daeson sighed.

Keydrian nodded and put his gear away.

"Alright," Aldalon said, "There is only one last place we need to visit."

"To Ember!" Andill exclaimed.

A few days later, the party came across what was thought to be Ember, the stench of the dead permeated the air of the town. One could easily that every citizen of the town had been slaughtered.

"I know I love a good battle," Andill said, "But this is overkill!"

Daeson noticed a shard sticking out of a tree, he walked over to it and pulled it out, "Come on, let's head back to Neverwinter."

After a few more days of walking the party was met outside the city gates by Laroyss and two guards.

"I'm afraid you all are under arrest," Laroyss said.

"What for!" The group said in shock.

"The slaughter of Ember," Laroyss said, "You best come with me."


	17. Chapter 17

The Forgotten Realms 17

"The slaughter of Ember," Aldalon said with curiosity, "It was like that when we got there!"

Laroyss sighed, "I don't doubt the fact that you all are not guilty. Frankly I believe you all are too stupid to actually do something like that," Laroyss said, "And I don't think someone who slaughtered Ember would have come back here. Especially considering I'd personally rip their spinal cord out and use that to play a song for those who passed on!"

"That is harsh man," Andill replied, "Even I wouldn't do that!"

The group of adventures looked at Andill oddly.

"Andill, are you possessed or something?" Keydrian asked him, "Because I know the real Andill would've been overjoyed at that concept."

Laroyss rolled his eyes, "Don't forget, it is the Luskans who have convicted you of the slaughter. I hope you people and Sand could find a way out of this," Laroyss looked at the door, "Speaking of which, here comes Sand now!"

As the drow paladin stepped out of the room, Sand walked in.

"Well, it seems that we're in a predicament and there is only one way out."

"And that way is?" Vollor inquired.

"Becoming a squire," Sand replied, "As it stands now, you're going to be put into a Luskan court. Seeing as the Luskans are the ones who are convicting you of this crime, they'll probably just have you murdered on the spot."

"And becoming a squire would subject us to a court in Neverwinter," Ke'vn exclaimed, "But who would be in need of a squire?"

"I know of three people in the Neverwinter Nine, who are in need of a squire," Sand said, "I shall contact them immediately, wait here."

Sand walked off as the heroes began to wait in the Moonstone Mask.

"Okay, so, how did we suddenly teleport into the Moonstone Mask?" Daeson asked.

"Narrative connivance," Aldalon said, "Other than that the writer pretty much decided to be lazy at this part."

"Personally, this writer dude is lazy to begin with," Andill exclaimed, "Look how long he took to come out with this story!"

"I agree with you there," Keydrian said, "But hey, at least he's continuing it."

"Before we completely shatter the fourth wall," William said, "Let's focus on the task at hand, who of us is going to become a squire?"

Daeson immediately raised his hand, Aldalon raised it next while William nodded, "It is settled Daeson, Aldalon, and I will become squires."

"Hey!" Vaxel exclaimed, "How come you get to become a squire without raising your hand?"

"I'm the one who initiated the vote," William smiled.

Vaxel rolled his eyes, "Fine, fine."

With that Sand entered the Moonstone Mask again with the elven wizard, the Halfling sorcerer, and a knight who looked like a knight.

"We've heard of your plight," The knight said, "and we have agreed to help you. Which one of you wants to become a squire?"

Aldalon, Daeson, and William stepped forward. The Halfling sorcerer walked up to Aldalon and smiled, "If you want to become my squire you'll have to do two things."

"And they are?" Aldalon inquired.

"First off you need to give me a piggyback ride!" The Halfling exclaimed before Aldalon did so.

"We'll spare you the years of cleaning stables and fetching blades," The knight said, "But there is one test that all squires must do."

"We're game," Daeson said.

"You three are to spend the night out in a special place, are you up to the challenge?" The knight asked.

"What is the worst that could happen," Aldalon laughed.

As night began to fall on Aldalon, Daeson, and William's camp, things started to get tense.

"Are you sure there is nothing out here?" William said, "Because I thought I heard something move."

"Don't be silly," Aldalon laughed as he tended the fire, "It should be safe for us for the night."

Daeson sighed, "So, Do you guys know your parents?"

"What an odd conversational point to bring up," William said, "Of course I do!"

Aldalon growled, "I'd rather not talk about them."

Daeson and William looked at Aldalon oddly.

"Why is that?" Daeson asked.

"Let's just say that my dad is one of those guys who hid behind some magic spell," Aldalon growled, "That is all I wish to tell you."

"You could at least tell us a bit more," William said.

"Oh, you want to know," Aldalon snapped, "Fine, my dad was the mayor of a two I care not to mention for obvious reasons. He was a rich man and was "well liked". I believed that my dad was one of the best people in this world until one day I opened his "secret room". In there, I found this fairy who told me that my dad had been using her magic to fool people into thinking that he was doing things for the better of the city," Aldalon spat, "When in fact, the hellspawn was just making rules to benefit himself, the city he rules over is nothing but a wretched hive of scum and villainy."

"Harsh," Daeson said, "You think we could go back there and kill him."

"If we ever get the chance to sure," Aldalon said, "But for now, let's focus on becoming squires!"

Three shadowy figures made their way out of the brush, one looked like a wizard, the other looked like a ranger, and the third one was definitely a black guard.

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that," The ranger said and began to knock an arrow.

Daeson grabbed his shield and sword and dashed toward the ranger, back handing him with his shield as the ranger's arrow flew past Aldalon.

"That is it!" Aldalon exclaimed, "I'm tired of people always shooting arrows at me! Daeson, move out of the way, I've got him!"

Daeson nodded and engaged the black guard in combat. William ran over to the wizard and began to fight him. As the ranger began to knock another arrow, Aldalon fired about sixty flame arrows into the archer's skin.

"Yeah, let's see how you like arrows now!" Aldalon exclaimed and fired another volley of flame arrows at the ranger, all of which hit their target. The ranger grunted and knocked one more arrow, "Oh no you don't," Aldalon exclaimed and sent a lightning bolt at the ranger, frying him from the inside out, "Now you see who the real arrow master is!"

Daeson had managed to block the black guard's first attack and swung his bastard sword, which was now covered in Ki energy, and managed to deliver a stab wound right into the black guard's heart. The black guard flinched from the attack as his sword began to glow red. Daeson smacked the opponent upside the head with his shield and decapitated the black guard. William made quick work of the wizard, managed to dodge just about every magical spell the wizard cast before driving his scythe into the wizard's chest.

"That was a bit too easy," William laughed, "Were these assassins or where they just random people?"

"I don't know," Aldalon said taking a ring from one of them, "but this doesn't bode well, who ever sent these people to kill us has got something to hide."

Daeson nodded, "For now though, let's sit by the fire and just relax."

The three nodded and did so, talking the night away before laying down for a good nights sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

The Forgotten Realms 18

The next morning, Aldalon, Daeson, and William where greeted by a knight, a halfling sorcerer, and a wizard.

"You all did well," The knight said before looking at the three corpses by the camp, "What are those?"

"They're people who decided to attack us," Aldalon smirked, "Let's just say they're employers didn't hire the right people to take us down."

"Speaking of employers," Daeson said, searching the corpse of one of the attackers before pulling out a piece of paper, "It looks like we've got ourselves a contract."

"Give it here," The knight said. Daeson nodded and handed the contract to the knight, who began to read it.

"This contract is for a different victim, but it was signed by one of the Arcane Brotherhood," The knight said.

"You mean from Luskan?" Aldalon asked.

"Yes, this would be a solid piece of evidence, but it doesn't prove that they were sent by Luskan," the knight replied.

William slipped a ring off the finger of one of the attackers, "This could help."

The knight took the ring and sighed, "This evidence is purely circumstantial. Although it is a ring of the Arcane Brotherhood the assassins could have easily picked it up when they killed some random person."

"So we've still got nothing," Daeson sighed, "Come on; let's get back to the others."

After heading back to Neverwinter and meeting up with the others in the Moonstone Mask, the group began to discuss their plan.

"Seeing as you're allowed to go out of the city, I would suggest investigating Ember, there could be some clues," Sand said.

"You're right," Vollor nodded, "When do we head out?"

"Let's head out now," Aldalon said, "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

About a few days later, the group arrived in Port Llast, where the guards were a bit too suspicious of them.

"We need to get out of here as fast as we can," William said, "I get the feeling we're not really welcome here."

"Hey!" A familiar voice shouted. The party turned around and saw the woman they had saved from the Lich a while back waving at them, "Are you adventurers headed to Ember?"

Keydrian nodded, "Yeah we are."

The girl handed them some dust, "Take this dust and sprinkle it over the bodies you find there. This dust will prevent the corpses from rising as the undead."

Vaxel nodded and took the dust, "Kelemvor bless you, kind soul."

The girl smiled before the group of adventurers got out of town and arrived at Ember.

"Okay," Aldalon said, "Keep your eyes out for anything suspicious."

"Like this," Vollor said, pointing to some foot prints, "It looks like there are only four of these prints."

"And we came here with way more than four people," Ke'vn said.

"Over here!" Daeson exclaimed.

The group ran over to see a small child with an axe in his back. The axe looked as if it was from another plane of existence, especially with a strange marking in the chest of the axe blade.

"This must be a weapon used by the githyanki or the githserai," William said, "I can't tell you anymore than that."

"Interesting," Aldalon said.

"Over here!" Keydrian exclaimed, holding up a ledger, "It says here that Luskan stopped all trade here a week ago!"

"Why would they stop trading with a town?" Vollor wondered.

"Maybe they knew it was going to be under attack and wanted to protect the merchants," Ke'vn said.

"How did they know about the attack though," Aldalon said, "Something isn't right here."

"We need to sprinkle this dust over the bodies," Vaxel said, "I'll proceed with the rite of passing." The others nodded and sprinkled the dust over the bodies as Vaxel buried them and preformed their rights.

"Excuse me," A small voice exclaimed from a well, "I know someone is up there, could you please come down and help me?"

The group looked at each other and nodded, Aldalon cast a slow fall spell on the entire party and they jumped down the well. At the bottom, a seven year old child with black hair, white skin, and tattered clothes was quivering.

"Are they gone yet Aldalon?" The boy asked the blue haired elf.

"How did you know my name?" Aldalon asked back.

"Are they gone?"

"Yes, they're gone it is okay now."

The boy looked at the party, "The people who slaughtered Ember looked like you, but they were not you. They had some sort of illusion up."

"Do you mind telling this to a court?" Keydrian asked.

"I don't mind, in fact I have an uncle in Neverwinter. I could stay with him." The boy said.

"Very well, we'll see you there," Daeson said before spying a door in the cave, "Guys look, a door!"

The group ran to the door and opened it; upon walking in they were greeted by several goblins.

"What do you want outsiders!" One of the goblins growled.

"We just want to get through this cave," Vaxel said, "We mean you and your people no harm!"

"The chief will see about that," One of the goblins said, "Come with us!"

The group followed the goblins to what looked like an important figure in the goblin community.

"Chief, these outsiders want to pass through our cave!" One of the goblins exclaimed.

"Let them pass, just ask long as they do not touch the glowstone," The chief said, "If they touch the glowstone, kill them!"

"Yes chief," Another goblin said.

The adventurers nodded and took their leave, safely passing through the cave which led them to a clearing in the forest. There, they found a dryad lying by a tree.

"Why have you come?" The dryad asked.

"We've come seeking answers," Ke'vn said.

"Very well, I've never had a visitor in this grove for twenty years, aside from some beings who passed by a few nights ago. You see strange things have been happening in the forest. There are no deer here, and the lake has dried up," the dryad explained, "There also used to be a river flowing through here, but it has dried up with the lake. Most people still think that the river still runs, unfortunately that is not the case. I also sense that you are here for something else," The dryad took out a small bag, "This was left behind by the beings when they made a hasty retreat through this grove."

"Illusion dust," Aldalon exclaimed, instantly recognizing one of the substances Thaneus sold in his shop before Westgate was taken over.

"Yes, now that I have told you all I know, you must do one thing for me," The dryad said, "You must burn this tree I am lying down by. It was the tree I was born out of, and by burning it you will kill me."

"Why would we want to kill you?" Keydrian asked the dryad.

"Have been in agonizing pain for almost a year now, this forest isn't what it used to be. Something is corrupting it, but I do not know what. My time is running out, please release me from this torment!"

"Very well Dryad," Aldalon said and put his hands on the tree, "Rest in peace," he said, with a slight hint of sadness as he burned down the tree and the dryad with it.

"We need to head back to Port Llast and tell that girl what we did at Ember," Vollor said and soon the others headed back to Port Llast and relayed the news to the girl.

"Thank you," The girl said with a bow.

"Would you mind doing something for us?" Aldalon asked, "Could you testify as a character witness at a trial on our behalf?"

The girl nodded, "Of course I can!"

"Thank you," Aldalon said.

"Why don't we head to Old Owl Well and talk to Callumn," Andill brought up.

"Sounds like a fine idea," Aldalon said as the group set a course for Old Owl Well. After about a day of walking, the group arrived at Old Owl Well.

"Oi," The dwarf known as Callumn said, "What bring you back?"

"We need someone to testify to our character in court," Andill said, "We've been accused of slaughtering Ember."

"What," Callumn exclaimed, "I know ye lads and you'd never do anything like that!"

"Then come to court and help testify that," Andill said.

Callumn nodded, "Yes, I will be doin' that."

"Thank you," Andill said with a bow.

"Well, we've got all the witnesses," Aldalon said, "I guess the next thing that awaits us is the trail."

"Let's go," Keydrian said, "The sooner we get over with this the sooner we can get to blowing stuff up!"

"Typical Keydrian," Daeson sighed before everyone let out a hardy laugh.


	19. Chapter 19

The Forgotten Realms 19

It was the day of the trial. The group of adventurers that had supposedly slaughtered Ember had prepared their case, now it was time to see if they had done enough prepping. Aldalon was, oddly, dressed in a blue tuxedo with blue jeans and a red tie with a white undershirt.

"Aren't you supposed to wear a robe?" Sand, who was standing in the room with the convicted, asked Aldalon.

"Yes, but this trial is a special occasion," Aldalon said, "

Sand sighed, "Now, three of you adventurers will take the stand with me. I would suggest one who is good at lying, one who is good at diplomacy, and one who is good at intimidating. Aldalon, Vaxel, and Andill stepped forward, "Good, good," Sand smiled and walked into the courtroom. Aldalon, Vaxel, and Andill looked at each other before nodding and following Sand in. On the prosecuting side, there was a red headed woman with white skin. She was dressed in a formal black suit with over puffed white shoulder and sleeves. The black suit had a white bow on its neck along with turquoise buttons. The girl was also wearing short black boots.

"All rise for the honorable Lord Nasher!" A courtroom member said as the king went to his throne and sat on it.

"Shall we proceed with the hearing?" One of the knights accompanying Lord Nasher said.

Nasher nodded, "Prosecution, call your first witness to the stand."

The lady on the other side of the court nodded and called up a woman.

"Now, what do you have to say," The lady smiled.

"They destroyed Ember! I remember when I saw them!" The woman pointed to Andill, Aldalon, William, and Vollor, "It was the four of them who did it!"

Aldalon growled and remembered a piece of evidence, "Objection! There were several foot prints found at the scene and they were all human foot prints! As you recall Andill has hooves!"

The crowd gasped and Sand looked at Aldalon with a smile on his face, "Nice going."

Aldalon nodded, "Being someone involved with the law is in my blood."

"Let her continue," The prosecutor said.

The woman continued, "I even saw that one kill a child with his sword!" she said, pointing to William.

"Objection," Aldalon shouted, "We happened to find the child's corpse at Ember and in fact there was an axe that was used by the Githyanki or Githzerai embedded in the child's back!"

"Your Honor, this elf clearly doesn't know what he is talking about!" The prosecutor exclaimed.

Aldalon rolled his eyes.

"Sustained," Lord Nasher said, "Continue with the reading."

"Maybe it wasn't a sword," The girl said, "It could have been an axe,"

"Tell me," Aldalon said, "What do you do for a living?"

"I am a farmer; I remember I had been a week late on my deliveries to Ember." The girl said.

"Then you should of known that Luskan stopped all trades with Ember a week before this incident took place," Aldalon said, showing the ledger he had found, "They knew this attack was going to take place."

"If Luskan knew the attack would take place, wouldn't we have stopped it?" The prosecutor asked.

"Or this was a set up by the Luskans," Aldalon said, "As we all know, they are sore losers because we liberated Port Llast from them."

"Why you little," The girl exclaimed.

"And you even managed to get her angry," Sand smiled, "I'm impressed."

"Maybe…maybe," The girl said, "I don't know! I don't know!" she exclaimed and ran out of the court room.

"How dare you press a victim of a tragedy like that," The prosecutor said, "I bet you anything that you destroyed Ember!"

Aldalon laughed, "No, I was just exposing a Luskan lie."

"How dare you question Luskan!" The prosecutor roared.

"A little angry that I exposed your lie are we," Aldalon smirked.

"Order in the court," Nasher exclaimed, "Do you have any more witnesses you would like to call to the stand?"

"Yes," The prosecutor said, "We would like to call a local hunter who witnessed the events to the stand."

A man in hunting garb walked up and took the stand.

"What do you have to say," The prosecutor said.

"You see I was out hunting deer in the grove by Ember, when all of a sudden," The man was interrupted by Aldalon shouting Objection, "A dryad in the grove told us that the deer had not been seen in the grove for sometime now, there no way this man could have been hunting deer!"

"Where is this dryad?" The prosecutor asked.

"She succumbed to the corruption that had been plaguing the grove," Aldalon said with a tear in his eye, "May she rest in peace."

"Alright, maybe I wasn't hunting deer," The man said, "I was taking a walk through the forest when I got tired and had to take rest by a tree near the river. The rushing water calmed me down and I fell asleep for a little bit."

"Objection," Aldalon roared, "The dryad in the grove also told us the river had been dry for quite sometime. She also mentioned that many people who have not come into the grove still think that the river is flowing! This witness was not even close to the scene of the crime!"

"You're right," The man said, "A few days before this trail; some assassins working for Luskan threatened me."

"Objection! This has nothing to do with this case," The prosecutor exclaimed.

"Sustained," Lord Nasher said, "If you have nothing else relating to this case then I shall for you to take a seat."

The man nodded and headed out.

"Does the prosecution have any further argument?" Nasher asked.

"No your honor," The prosecutor said.

"Would the defense like to call a witness to the stand?" Lord Nasher said.

"Yes, we call Adam to the stand," Aldalon said.

The small boy from Ember walked up and sat down.

"You think that this boy is actually a credible witness?" The prosecutor laughed.

"Now, Adam, you saw the slaughter at Ember, what can you tell us," Aldalon asked.

"You were not at the slaughter of Ember, Some men who looked like you were," Adam said.

"And how do you suppose the men looked exactly like the guilty?"

The prosecutor asked.

"Simple," Aldalon said, taking out a bag of illusion dust, "This is illusion dust, as you know illusion dust gets weaker as time goes on. For this to have to max effect, it would have had to been made a day before the slaughter of Ember. And according to the dryad, it was dropped by the real perpetrators. All of us and the friends we've met can vouch for the fact that we have never used illusion dust in our travels, nor did we have the time to make it seeing as we were busy doing a task for the king!"

The king nodded, "Indeed you were."

The crowd gasped.

"That is all," Aldalon said, "We now call Lord Callumn to the stand!"

Lord Callumn walked up and took a seat.

"Callumn, can you attest to our character," Aldalon asked.

"Aye, that I can! Ye cleared the orcs out o' Old Owl Well and ya even free the Icewind Dale Emissary, who happens to be in the audience right now!" Callumn said before the Icewind Dale emissary stood up and waved.

"And do you happen to know that their lawyer, Sand, is a Luskan?" The prosecutor smiled.

Lord Callumn sighed, "But is he doin' the talkin' I think not? Besides, Aldalon be five times the lawyer Sand is!"

Aldalon looked at Sand and winked, Sand responded with a small chuckle.

"Their be no way these lads could'a slaughter Ember, they be to good ta' do that," Callumn said, "And ye know it be true because I be one o' the Neverwinter Nine!"

The crowd gasped.

"No further questions your honor," Aldalon said. Callumn walked off the stand.

"Now I shall deliberate on this matter," Lord Nasher said before a long pause, "I find the defendants not guilty!"

"I call a trail by combat!" The prosecutor exclaimed.

"Drat, I was hoping she didn't know about that!" Sand exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Vaxel said, cracking his fist, "I've got it covered!"


End file.
